So one by one, for this last seven years I sat by the beds of some 2,000+ people now dead. I lived life with them for a while. Their families laughed and loved, cried, argued and prayed. Their time was God’s own gift to me during those years with my dear hospice team.  From my team, I listened and learned about mental health, medicine, grief and death.  I grew into a life lived to serve others, lending whatever gifts we possess to them in faith and with love.

Among other gifts, God gave me these two: an ear and a tongue.  A good number of of those terminally ill folks and their families found some help with me.  Together we stopped dying a little more each day and started living them each once again, breath by breath to the last.  Some even lived longer than that.  Much longer: Forever in Christ.

I’m not much of a guitarist, but I’ve got a steady heart beat.  I play by ear.  I listen by eye.  And here lately, sometimes my fingers sing words to sustain weary souls.