Purpose is the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s needs. ~Frederick Buechner

Today, I complete my hospice volunteer visits. During several, I offer Reiki to those I visit. At such moments, I silently enter presence. This presence wisely knows all about allowing Life and Death. It is our beginning, much of our journey, and central to our end. So, it is in this presence my needs and my gladness meet the patient’s needs and gladness. Something in the experience ‘echoes across millennia’ in a primordial, authentic, heartful spirit.

Yesterday, I was teaching fourth graders about Aesop’s Fables through reading and group discussion. Eventually, we pondered how this fellow who lived so long ago knew the truth about us here today. We appreciated how accurate his ‘moral of the story’ seemed throughout the many fables we shared with each other.

And so it is that the particulars of the times may be different, but the sameness of human experience ‘echoes across millennia’. Human beings struggle with differences, grieve, strive for openness, yearn to belong to something greater than the self, and long to contribute. This remains our steadfast hope for unity with the other; and our great confidence in love through and with each other ~ grounded in our mutual Be-ing.

This is my heart’s prayer as I begin this day of visits to hospice patients:

May Wisdom be in my hands and in my conscious working

May Wisdom be in my body and in my open heart

May Your Spirit be with me all the time giving me strength, wisdom and holiness.