 A lovely self-care ritual that made a memorable impact
How many times as a healthcare professionals have we given lip service or shallow attention to the idea that we must take care of ourselves? A lot...and then there are so many life and death scenarios and issues, it is easy to put any of it off for the needs of others. But this is not sustainable. We need to be evergreen to be useful. (This goes for family members caregiving for sick loved ones too.) The Ritual of the Chalice and the Saucer IMAGINE that pottery chalice being filled... The pitcher starts pouring...into the chalice and... They are talking about self care ... it must be one of those metaphors where we are are putting a happy face sticker on your dash board to hide an empty gas tank...? But no...they keep pouring.... The chalice is half full... (we pause to see if the ritual will be one of those half empty or half full metaphors... but no they keep right on pouring....) The chalice is 3/4 full... and they pause... (It is probably one of the metaphors about staying full to do what is yours to do... it's a good one. I believe it on most days.) But no... the pitcher is pouring past full...it's spilling over into the saucer... ( ok... ok...they are talking about ministering from the overflow...we bless from the overflow because ... hey... the Kingdom of God is within... Source is unlimited. The Lord our God is One. God is great.) Then, surprisingly, they dip their fingers in the saucer ... ( then start throwing this holy water on everyone in attendance) Got it. We bless from the Overflow. It becomes, we become sustainable. Amen. Note: this is a creative reuse - with verbal permission from Rev. Dr. Rev. Nancy Wiens in the lecture she did on Contempletive Self-Care in the Chaplaincy Institute's death and dying series this year.
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