Sharon Tennyson, a registered nurse, wrote the following during a sixteen hour shift with a forty year old patient in very grave condition....

"The room was quiet....curtains pulled to reduce sensory stimulation.....the environment is a tense peace, if that is possible.  A little Basque priest comes in making his usual rounds.  He inquires quietly about my patient's condition with real concern. I am touched as he walks to the bed rail, holds his hand--palm down--about twelve inches over this man's head and begins to pray silently. Minutes later he makes a sweeping slow cross over the top part of my patient, and quietly fades out of the room.

I am aware of tears in my eys.  Why does this touch the heart and soul within me so?  This little priest, looking to be in his sixties, salt and pepper hair, no taller than five foot three inches, walks around the hospital comforting the grieving, encouraging the sick and praying gfor the dying.  And here he is today, praying over and loving a sleeping man who doesn't even know him or know he is there.
And this is his work in the world.  He does it with great dignity and compassion. How many times are there those who are silently holding us in loving thought and prayer when it is completely unknown to us?  
And my mind slowly comes back from its journey into timeless possibilities, to the bed of this beautiful man, and I take up where the little Basque priest left off, and am so touched and humbled by the possibility that we can enter into each other's lives in this silent way."

Gerald Jampolsky, TEACH ONLY LOVE (New York: Bantam Books, 1983, p 73-74)

Hmmmmmm..."and this is his work in the world"....so what is mine? What is yours?  Your choice. My choice.  I will take some time and think this extremely important question through a little more....If my life is only of value to me..then what do I have really?  If it is of value to others...its value is multiplied and perhaps I can do for others what so many have done for me....show me an example, encourage me, help keep me "in the game" and hold on to me when I get confused and a little lost...thank you to all who have done that for me.  Maybe this story will help me be more dedicated to paying it all forward, as they say....... have a nice day. Jim