things I think about when I have time to think

It was a consultation I had played out in my mind many times before... a kind of role-playing exercise, practising for the one-day.   Today was my one-day.  I called them into my room, broad smiles on their faces, a husband and wife, parents of a one-year old. We exchanged introductions, I opened her file, and then asked how I could help. Just a normal regular consult. "She's 3 days late with her period." It was her husband who spoke for her, "We think she's pregnant." I smiled. This was good news. They, too, were smiling. "Have you done a home pregnancy test?" "No," it was the husband who spoke once again. "We thought we would come straight to the doctor... because we don't want it. And we need to make arrangements to abort it as soon as possible." The entire consult slowed down for me here... I heard myself speaking, asking about their contraceptive usage, offering the woman a speci

    “ Many times when we help we do not really serve. . . .  Serving is also different from fixing. One of the pioneers of the Human Potential Movement, Abraham Maslow, said, "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.'   Seeing yourself as a fixer may cause you to see brokenness everywhere, to sit in judgment of life itself.   When we fix others, we may not see their hidden wholeness or trust the integrity of the life in them. Fixers trust their own expertise.   When we serve, we see the unborn wholeness in others; we collaborate with it and strengthen it. Others may then be able to see their wholeness for themselves for the first time.”   ― Rachel Naomi Remen I do this. I try to fix. It's who I am... At work, at home, in life. And although it is with good intentions, to heal, to help... I've been rethinking it lately.  Fixers trust their own expertise, their abilities, their timing .  And that's not w