Rockford and CPE Week 2

June 18
Former Feast Day of St. Ephrem the Syrian (Now June 9)
He became known as "The Harp of the Holy Ghost" for the hymns he wrote to counter heretical ideas expressed in the hymns he heard.

Be kind to everyone you meet, for every person is fighting a great battle. - St.Ephrem


We all survived week 2 of CPE which included the first Interpersonal Relationship group sessions (IPR), our first verbatim/discussion, and an individual conference with the supervisor.  Now that I (I wanted to say "we" but I can only speak for myself!) am only getting lost occasionally and have begun to "get in" with the nurses in each of my units, I am quite comfortable in the hospital.  Where I am getting stuck and struggling is in learning the art of pastoral listening.  For 25 years, I've listened for facts, theory, formulas.  Now I must train myself to accurately interpret "meaning" into the facts that patients share with me. In order to do this, I need to be aware of my own reactions, why I react as I do, and how it affects my response. Crap. This is hard stuff.  But, nevertheless, I am enjoying every moment spent with the chaplains, interns, and patients. Tomorrow is my first day on call alone.

On another note, the doc I saw this morning said "costochondritis."  I had to come home and look it up.  Thanks to the Mayo website, I can tell you that it's injury to the cartilage connecting ribs to the sternum, caused by a variety of things such as heavy lifting and blows to the chest, both of which I am quite familiar with.  It most commonly occurs in women over 40 and can heal in a short time, or in several months, sometimes longer.  It's already been four months since I started complaining about rib and shoulder pain.  My mom always says of me, "If you're going to do something, you're gonna do it good."  So much for thinking I was going to answer the "help wanted" add in the paper for moving someone's giant wood pile. Enough complaining.

It has been too much fun having Archie here this last week.  He's the poopingest dog I've ever met (I picked up 6 piles before Noon today), but he's cute and wiggly and occasionally settles enough to cuddle.  Madelaine even played with him yesterday, before she "came to her senses" and realized what she was doing.  "Oh! I wasn't playing with that thing! I'm being crabby at him! See?  Hiss. Spit." Cats. I'll miss Archie when he goes home to his family on Monday! Madelaine will too, though she'll never admit to it.

Pax.