Yesterday I had the most empowering experience with my Hospice patient. We were discussing out thanksgiving experiences, and all the great food we have eaten, when he offered to show me some of the left over he had. Naively, at first I thought that he simply wanted to show me his bounty, but after opening his Tupperware he offered me to partake.
Due to my fixation on never being a burden to others, I quickly said no thank you. But he asked again, and I obligingly agreed.
As I sat and watched him slowly shuffle his feet around the kitchen to share his food with me, I experienced Love. Love that endured the pain and shortness of breath forever accompanying someone with COPD(Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease),undoubtedly accentuated during activity. Love, in the sense of empowering him to love and serve me...and Love in allowing myself to simply take and eat(sound familiar?).
It was as if Jesus himself was serving me, taking all the strain and labor necessary to nourish my body and soul. All that I could give back was gratitude (hold the methane...wink).
As I enjoyed the broccoli casserole and candy-tasting cranberries, he sat and watched contently.
In retrospect, my entire experience with my hospice patient has happened to me in this vein. I constantly come to him on my knees, and always end up with my feet in a bowl.
Since my patient holds his independence as Atlas with the globe, there is nothing tangible that I can offer him in the realm of service except for my presence, though now I am wondering if that is the greatest gift we can ever give another human being, or maybe even ourselves?
Providing presence is the most basic thing we can give another person, but the hardest to come by in a world seemingly designed as an obstacle course for individual with ADD. Presence, as my third-grade teacher would call "undivided attention" is the diamond in the rough, ever available beneath the surface of our kaleidoscopic existence.
When we re-discover the diamond in the rough, we may even understand the grace and liberation that comes with unveiling the reality that our greatest gift to ourselves and the world is in our ability to be present.
