I became a part-time-on-call-Chaplain at Fairview Hospital in 1988

The hours were from 5 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. five or six days a month,

and it was usually Emergency Room cases

that had me rolling out of my warm bed

on cold winter nights to attend to those crises.     .     .

It was those catastrophes

that involved car accidents,

shootings,

heart attacks,

still births,

suicides

and some natural caused deaths.      .      .

I met and cared for many more family members

than I ever did patients in those settings and they taught be

the most important,

the most sacred,

the most intimate,

the most significant,

the most heart-wrenching,

the most profane

the most consecrated,

the most hallowed lesson

I’ve learned in all my 61  years

and had affirmed and validated countless times over since:

IT   IS   NOT   THE   LIVES 

YOU    TOUCH    THAT    MATTERS.           .           .

SO     MUCH     AS     THE

L             I             V             E             S

T   O  U  C  H  E  D

BECAUSE     OF     THOSE     YOU     FIRST     HAVE     TOUCHED !

It’s a lesson

I’ve learned

re-learned

continuing to learn

and never fully

comprehend

or 

understand.          .          .

and hopefully never will–

even with the very next life I touch

to continue the never-ending

wave.          .          .

Go ahead.           .            .

T    O    U    C    H         A         L  I  F  E

Create a Ripple–

try seeing where it ends.           .            .  

or better still.     .     .

what it starts in yet another person