holiness of ordinary acts

Janet is the one who turned me onto The Quotidian Mysteries by Kathleen Norris (links on my sidebar). It is a tiny little book that really has had quite a profound effect on me; I've just finished and know I will read it over and again.

There was a section in the book where Ms. Norris spoke of conducting a weekend retreat at a Benedictine monastery (heaven!) where two-thirds of the participants were nurses, nursing home attendants and hospice workers, so naturally, my attention was full-on. In pertinent part:

(those in attendance)...were healthcare workers...who had recognized their need for a break from their stressful work. Through our silence and conversation, contemplation and story-telling, it became clear that they also knew that in a hospital or hospice room where people need assistance with the most basic of tasks...the holiness of ordinary acts is made most manifest. It is there, at one extreme of human vulnerability, that we come to realize that all we customarily take for granted is truly a gift from God.

That blew me away as just last week, I was taken from my Labor & Delivery secretarial duties and was placed on maternity to help with patient care for the entire shift. I was hands-on, all day, meeting the needs of many of our Cesarean section patients and while I came home a bit exhausted, when I reflected on my day, I saw how extremely blessed I was to have had things happen the way they did as I did things I have not done yet: patient care, bed changes, cleaning up after surgeries - at times when new mommies are hurting and bone-tired - I was able to help them feel clean and refreshed to meet their company, to share quiet time with their little ones. And it was really, really cool.

Plus, I was able to go through the nursery and put my hand on little bellies as I passed by, whispering blessings into little newborn ears :)

During the next schedule, I will be on maternity (post-partum) for about six weeks doing patient care (and helping in the nursery), then the six weeks following that, I will begin teching on L&D with births and scrubbing in for C-Sections (!!) Apparently, they think I am ready to move on...I am beyond blessed that God would use me in this way.

~*~*~*~*~
excerpted from "The Bath," by Laura Gilpin

I stand here bathing her
while she sleeps
in a far place beyond my reaching

I bathe her
as I have been taught to do:
first the eyes, then the forehead,
the face, the neck.

[The poet talks to the woman all the while, "believing that hearing is the last to go," but is not certain that her words have any effect. The poem (and I believe it is a prayer) concludes:]

She offers no resistance,
except that of gravity
the earth pulling her down
as I lift,
as though something between us
is being weighed.

Then I turn to her to wash her back
talking to her about what seems to matter
in this life -- though I make no promises.

Only this morning
the promise of spring was in the air
and I tell her that.
~*~*~*~*~