Life can get busy – chaotic even.
And amidst the chaos, it can be easy to miss the small moments of wonder that are truly life-giving.
Here’s a story from Rachel Remen, MD about a doctor who had his eyes opened in a powerful way. In fact, he says that experience freed him from the cynicism, depression, and frustration he’d been carrying for years.
Take a look – it’s under 5 minutes.
Doctors aren’t the only ones who can miss these holy moments, it’s therapists, teachers, and parents – it’s all of us.
Now I’d like to hear from you. When have you had an experience like this one? Please share a story or leave a comment below.
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what a wonderful touching experience both for the baby and for the doctor – babies do love to look in people’s eyes – but this was her very first look which will be remembered somewhere deep in her unconscious – a real transcendent kairos moment for both of them
As an RN working for several years on a Med/Surg unit, I have been blessed with several small moments. One in particular I will never forget, I was working night shift and had a sweet, little lady that I was sending to our sister hospital the next morning for a cardic cath. She was in her late 80’s and looked frail. Early that morning I helped her bath and get ready for transport, as we talked I found out she had no one that would be there for her before or after the procedure. I could see that she was scared and I tried my best to reassure her that our cath department had an excellent team of Drs. and staff and that they would take very good care of her. That nursing gut feeling told me it wasn’t going to be “alright”. I gathered up her belongings and when she ask where she could keep her Rosary to have it close by I took it and placed it in her robe pocket. I am a Christian, though not a Catholic, I understood how much comfort that having her Rosary where she could reach would give her. When the ambulance crew came in I assisted her unto the cart. I took her hand and made sure she felt that her Rosary was in her pocket. We always get a report on patients we send to the cath lab, some are discharged from there, some are kept for surgery, some come back and finish their stay on my unit. That night when I came back into work, I ask if she returned, the answer was what I had feared, she coded on the cath table. I felt bad that I had led her to think everything would be alright and that she had no one there with her. Then I recalled the moments I had spent with her making sure she had something to hold onto and letting her know that her nurse really cared. As healthcare professionals we must realize that sometimes our advanced medicines and treatments are not the whole answer, it is our compassion, empathy, and being present in the moment that is most important to our patients and ultimately to ourselves.
My daughter is now 17 years old, but this video triggered some deep emotions that re-surface from time to time. I had a C-Section, and I wasn’t able to hold or see me daughter for approx. 5 hours thereafter, and she was bottle fed. I often wish that I was able to hold her, and feed her right away, as my later attempts to breastfeed her failed, and she was unable to latch on. I often wonder if the separation from each other from the time she was born had any affect on our initial bonding time, and her inability to breastfeed. I need to find a way to let go, and embrace the bond we now have 🙂
Perhaps the doctor has touched on the holy moments that comprise each day. Once the heart has been properly awakened and all conscious blocks removed the holy moments become fluid and fill us.
It was only after the sudden loss of my husband of 34 years that my heart sought re-activation and found the miracle of life and beyond … Love=God … One needs only to look up at the sky or gaze at nature to
to behold the ever lasting beauty of love.
Moments with my children. I think back and I can hear their voices and see their faces… all the wonder they shared, their continual acts of kindness (giving me special rocks and picking dandelions for me). I am so grateful for those moments when they managed to slow my world down to a crawl, allowing me to soak in and be amazed by their love and gentleness.
Moments in nature. Rustling of the trees in the breeze, the sun on my face, thunder and lighting storms, watching the wall of rain make its way across the lake, the water on my skin, the dirt beneath my bare feet, large falling snowflakes, the sun glistening across the white blanket of snow, the moon when it is large and sits low in the sky, the smell of the trees, the song of the chickadees, chipmunks, the warmth of fire… and so on.
This is absolutely true and remarkable!
Thanks Ruth for sharing this video! In an Emergency room, there are so many holy moments to catch on but that’s not what HCP have been trained to do.
However, the ones who discover these hidden joys are the lucky ones who get paid to be happy.
Suzanne
This is an awesome story and reminds me of the story of Mother Theresa visiting the sick and the healing power of touch!
Thank you.
When I was 8 years old my appendix ruptured and I had emergency surgery. In those days parents were not encouraged to stay with their children. Visiting hours were enforced. I was blessed to have a nursing student, Miss Beattie , assigned to my care.
Like the doctor ,in the video, she looked into my frightened eyes as I was having my dressing changed. I was so frightened and then …….she touched my cheek ever so gently, reassuring me.
This holy moment is always recalled by the tender touch of my cheek and in that moment I knew I , too would be a nurse.
Thank you Ruth for this Christmas gift to us all!
Thank you so much for sharing this doctor’s experience. Sharing deeply with our eyes carries a deep message (ESPECIALLY from the very young) and we humans need to recognize the value of catching and learning from these and other spiritual moments. I’ve carried this experience of looking into an infant’s eyes with me for the last 50 years …. it was my infant, three months old, and as I carried my sleeping son up the stairs to put him to bed, he suddenly opened his eyes and looked very deeply into mine. I was somewhat startled–I was a very young mother. Being slightly startled was, very sadly, a prelude to the greatest pain of my life and that was my son breathing his last breath in his crib, an innocent victim of SIDS. But his message to me with his eyes was a blessing of wisdom from all of life — that life as we experience it is only a part of an experience we can now only touch through what we call these spiritual moments. My son has reminded me of this throughout the years, guiding my own spiritual growth. May we all grow more open to a life experience of pure love by sharing more frequent and deeper messages of love with each other.
A great example of a peak experience.
That look from the baby – I could not hear the description fully because of hearing impairment – reminded me of what happened after the birth of my youngest child, 37 years ago. The maternity ward was extremely busy that day, and I was left by the nurse in a hurry. My baby was in a tiny cot near the foot of my bed. I was waiting to get cleaned up, but it wasn’t happening, so I decided to get up to comfort my baby who was crying. In my arms, she stopped crying and looked into my eyes, steadily, for a long time – maybe a minute – only stopping when I looked away.. It was wondrous – and, oh, I wish I had not looked away!
I have often wondered about this, as I had been taught that babies cannot focus their eyes for some time after birth. She looked, actively, into my eyes, she was fully present.