Thursday Thoughts...

How intently we serve, we who only sit and wait. 

Kathryn Mannix

My ponderings return to the theme of 'life' today.  I came across Kathryn Mannix's book With the End in Mind a year or so ago, listening to a podcast called GriefCast. She has a gentle voice and much wisdom gleaned after a career as a palliative care specialist.

This fairly simple and pared back sentence seemed to say so much to me.

I think it honours anybody who has ever waited alongside (or in these new times, distant from) somebody who is ill, injured or dying.  That place of simply sitting and being alongside somebody.  Knowing that there is very little you can actually physically do. Which I think explains her use of only.  Not to diminish us by saying you are only sitting and waiting and not doing anything important; but rather to acknowledge that in some situations it is all you can do.

Which can be so very hard.

Realising that simply accompanying somebody with your presence and your spirit and your care and your concern is valuable. The grace for us acknowledge and accept that.

I think her use of the the word intently gives a real sense of the focus and the energy that can be involved in waiting.  It isn't passive, there is a massive flight of energy from us to our person; the vigilance of watching, concentrating, staying awake even after hours of the long night.

I appreciate so much that she has put into words the honour and the important role of those who wait.