From Nurse to Chaplain – from care to prayer

​A poem by Ajahn Kalyāno about how he sees meditation as an invaluable a part of caring for those who are sick or dying:

From Nurse to Chaplain 
– from care to prayer


there I was 
with the bandage and the crutch
listening ears 
tissues for tears
there I always was
for all those years

at the time 
and every time
it meant so much

I can still smell the savlon, the soap
and the desperate hope...

there I was 
with the pooh I always knew
and the blood, always a surprise
sharpening the eyes
there I was in the rolling tears 
of lost loves
and in the niggling fears

now it doesn’t mean so much
the world of touch

meaning more is a softness in the eye
which knows
a softness so sweet
and always new
like baby’s toes

a softness where 
a given prayer
giggles and wriggles itself free
free to simply be

such that a prayer
is always there 
in the air
a prayer that knows

‘there is life and death 
in every breath
as it flows’

as a bandage or a crutch
it doesn’t mean much
it is heavy to the touch

yet the prayer 
is there
where light meets the air

at the touch of light 
and the lightest touch

such is the suchness
pure and bright 
of the heart
where we can go
if we can let go
and where we need never part