In the chaplain’s office, we have a small prayer corner. It’s something very simple… a bowl with small pebbles, a hand labyrinth, and some meditation pieces. One of the rocks has the word “Remember” on it. I got it at the Holocaust Museum, as a symbol of the people forever lost. But the stone has a deeper meaning than that. This prayer corner is where we stop to remember the patients who have died.

Remembering is a discipline. I have new patients every week. None of them are on my caseload for a long time… so when they die, it begins to add up emotionally. One way to cope is to turn off my feelings and just move on. But I can’t do that. It’s not just a patient, it’s a family. It’s friends. It’s a lifetime of achievements. It’s memories.

Remembering also has another result… it makes me grateful. Grateful for the people in my life — their experiences impact my life. Their joys and their worries cause me to think about my own. And many times, I realize how much I have to be thankful for…

So I Remember…