Reiki Focus - "Let me call you sweetheart"

It is almost a month since we were visiting Kuramayama, and yet today I was in Brooklyn Park, not New York, but Baltimore, in an old section of the city with poverty and middle class homes near the city's sports palaces. Some lives play in front of large crowds in endeavors that perhaps have enduring meaning, some lives play out with family and friends with no spectators, but may in the eyes of the creator have more significant meaning. Who am I to tell? I make home visits to Hospice patients, and my GPS has brought me here. I have called ahead, the door is open, no door bell, I knock and wait. It is near 100 degrees outside and perhaps just as hot inside. There is a small fan. And my patient, and her caregiver.

I sit down and we begin to talk. Mary is nearly 90, she has congestive heart failure and the specialists have told her going to the hospital won't help anymore. She needs care for all her needs, and Sally is there to help her. Why? Sally's daughter is the niece of the patient, who has no children of her own. The patient's sister's son being the father. When times were tough, and the father wasn't around, Sally's daughter's grandmother helped out, and so did her sister, and now Sally is "there for them."

If there are heroes in this world Sally is one of them. It is time for me to go, and I am still thinking about what can be done to help this family.

I am off to another home, it is an assisted living not so far away. It is air conditioned, I notice this fact - there are two patients to see, one suffering from dementia and one from severe Parkinson's disease. Hospice brings light - sometimes we bring medicines that help make life more comfortable, more livable. While it is not our philosophy to either shorten or prolong life, as long as we can make someone comfortable, we all try to find ways to help someone live just a little bit longer when we can. If medicines won't work though (and often in Hospice that is the case) - we bring other modalities, Chaplains, Reiki, and today - Music therapy. Seasons Hospice of Maryland now has 30 staff members or volunteers trained to Level 1 Reiki or above, and 4 full time Music therapists. Karen was visiting this home, she plays guitar and sings with a gorgeous voice, never with a very large audience, but people who are moved (almost magically) and are very appreciative.

And so Karen started singing, "Let me call you Sweetheart, I'm in love with you. Let me hear you whisper, that you love me too." I was examining Sarah, her neurologist had certified her as having terminal Parkinson's disease and she appeared quite "locked in." But hearing the music, I decided to put my stethoscope down for a minute and sing along, what harm could it do? I took Sarah's hands and sang along with Karen - "Keep the love light glowing, in your eyes so blue. Let me call you Sweetheart, I'm in love with you."

And she began to mouth the words, and then Sarah began to sing along. Karen played through the whole song again, and Sarah sang the whole song, and looking at me gave me this biggest smile. The other patients and the caregivers all started clapping for her.

At the office the next day, we had a meeting with our Founder and National President. Marcia Norman had started a new Foundation, and had raised money to be used "not for day to day operations," but to do special things to make a difference in some people's lives. Not people you understand, who we read about in the newspapers, just people who are struggling to live, and compassionate people who care for them. Marcia said, "we want to find projects that make a difference, maybe buy an air conditioner for someone who is suffering and can't afford one."

And my mind turned to Mary, fighting for her life, with Congestive heart failure, too ill for the cardiologists to do anything, and in a 90 degree row house, and Sally, who out of compassion was taking care of a woman barely related to her, who had helped her earlier in life - and people do that sometimes, they remember and they pay back with caring and compassion. And I said, "I have a patient who needs an air conditioner." And Marcia listened patiently to me (as she often does), and said, "OK Dr Bob, the Seasons Hospice Foundation will help that patient get an air conditioner."

It may be a long way from Kurama Yama, but the light that comes from compassion and caring from one person to another through Hospice, through Reiki and through Music Therapy, through Churches and Synagogues and Mosques and Temples and through nurses and doctors who come to people's home and witness their struggles and their lives - that light comes through to us.

For all those who participate in this work, volunteers, caregivers, healthcareworkers -

"Let me call you Sweetheart
I'm in love with you
Let me hear you whisper
That you love me too.
Keep the love light glowing
In your eyes so blue
Let me call you Sweetheart
I'm in love with you."

Your compassion is recognized and appreciated.