All in a day's work

After few days of vacation, I returned to work today, the first day of the year. My first visit was to a patient named Bertha who was 100 years old today: She was born on 1/1/1910! She was a lovely lady, still with some of her faculties intact, and we had a nice visit. At the end, I took her fragile hands in mine and told her that she had a graceful face radiating peace and had eyes full of life and light. She was joyfully pleased and thanked me for the good words and told me that all my dreams for 2010 will come true. That was the first blessing of the day.

Then I moved on to my next patient who is 102. He too has his faculties. Morris told me that he stayed up until midnight to watch the ball drop in Time Square, NY,but missed it, because he did not realize that he was watching public television until the "whole thing was over." Poor guy, what do you expect when you are 102 years old.

My next assignment was an excubation, (removing of life support). Abe had a fall two weeks ago, and his brain was without oxygen for 15 minutes. He had pipes and tubes attached all over him. Abe was not conscious or able to respond. I sat down with his sister and our Nurse explaining the process, but his sister was very nervous. She did not want "to kill him." She wanted him to live. She was totally unrealistic about the prognosis, yet she did not have the courage to make that decision. She had to ask her therapist who was on vacation till Tuesday and wanted to do as the therapist suggested. I said to myself: "Why do people mortgage their brains to other people?" Why do they listen to opinions of others who have no stake in the case and consider that more important than their ow opinion? After nearly two hours of talking and and discussion the woman decided to wait.

she thought that both myself and our Nurse had an "aura" because we work in hospice. We told her that it was not about aura but about being realistic about life and embracing death as part of life. Those who fight death have not really understood the meaning of life.

Who said being hospice chaplain is a job? No, it is a vocation, a ministry that I am privileged to have. I thank God for the opportunity to be part of people's life at the end. It is a gift and a privilege indeed.

Just Disgusted!

I don't usually get disgusted, and it will take a lot to make me so. But what is happening in our capital regarding the health care reform really rises that level. I am just tired of people saying that we live in the greatest democracy in the world and we cannot wait to spread it around. But look at what is happening in the seanate! One weenie senator by the name of Joseph Looserman, oh, Lieberman, can hold 59 other senators hostage and control the outcome of a huge bill. How is that democracy? It should be a simple majority to get things done.

If there is one person in this whole country that I have the least respect for, that is Mr. Liberman. He says he is a religious man, but his religon and morality are just words coming out of the mouth of a man who does not really understand the essence of religion. He chasitised Clinton about his moral failings, but Liberman's morality is limited to sexual morality only.

What is moral about denying basic health coverage to millions of poor people in this country? What is moral about receiving millions of dollars from insurance companies and doing their bid instead of that of the people he is elected to serve? What is moral about being blindly pro-Israel at the expense of the poor Palestinians?

Mr. Liberman has no principles or morals that guide his actions.He is an embrarrassment to humanity and I just can't take it any more, this man talking about doing th right thing, when all he does is make statements with his tongue that is not connected to his heart. I just don't want to hear his whining voice anymore. I can't take it any more.

Still with Us... The Anniversary Card

I facilitate a bereavement support group in a county hospital. A group of eight to ten people gather every week to talk about their grief and loss, to offer support to each other and get support in that process. One theme that runs through our meetings is the idea that our loved ones have not "gone anywhere" but that they are still with us not "in spirit" but "as spirits". There is a big difference. "Present in spirit" means mostly as a memory. But "as spirits" means an "active presence" not tangible to touch or visible to the eye but tangible to the soul. Most participants are open to this idea, but there are skeptics too. One such skeptic was Andrea who had lost her mother on March 17, 2009.

During our meeting on November 30, 2009, Andrea came in with an envelope in her hand and asked me to open and read the card in it. It was a wedding anniversary card from her mother that had arrived in the mail, on Saturday, November 28, 2009, for Andrea and her husband. And it said: Dear Andrea and Lee, Happy anniversary, mom and dad."
November 30th is their wedding anniversary!

Andrea said that she had received anniversary cards from her mom and dad, every year since her marriage. She was sad that she won't receive one this year as her mother had passed in March. But she did!It was signed by her mom and the address on the envelope was also written by her mom!

The envelope was POST MARKED November 27, 2008! Where was that card for a whole year? Why was it not delivered the day after it was posted? Why didn't it show up six months earlier or six months later? Whey was it not lost permanently? Why would it arrive on the exact weekend of her anniversary? I told Andrea that it was her mother wishing her a happy anniversary. Andrea began to cry. She said she cried for hours when she received the card on Saturday and was confused, mesmerized, and mystified by the continued presence of her mom with her. She is now convinced that her mom is around her.

Still with Us... The Sports Balloon

My good friend Rick Rosen passed away on November 30,2009 due to a massive heart attack. He leaves behind his wife Paige, and two children, Jonathan and Alison. I officiated their wedding just six years ago. Paige wanted me to officiate his funeral too. More than two hundred people gathered to bid farewell to Rick on 12/2/09 at Temple Bethel Cemetery in Hollywood. It was one of the saddest days of my life. Once again, I stood at the door of the unfathomable mystery of life.

Paige woke up around 7 AM on the day of the funeral. She told her sister Valerie who was staying with her, not to put any sports channel that morning. She wanted to listen to soft music. Rick was an avid fan of NY Giants. When he was home, ESPN was always on. The morning of Rick's funeral, ESPN was off.

While Paige stood in the screened in back porch with a cup of coffee in her hand, she noticed a balloon slowly approaching her house. As it came closer, she noticed that it was a sports balloon with pictures of four balls on it. It came to the screen door, hit against it few times and fell to the ground. Paige screamed at the top of her lungs calling her sister. She and her family had no doubt it was Rick letting her know that he was around.

A Sad Week

My week began with a voice mail message on my cell phone. "Hi Paul, this is Paige Rosen, I have some bad news for you. Rick had a massive heart attack last night and he died....he was very fond of you...I have to go an make some funeral arrangements this morning." I was driving when I heard that message.I pulled over and began to cry. I called my my and she began to cry.

Rick was a healthy 51 year old man. He was watching TV lying on his couch with his wife next to him. It was 9.15 PM.Sunday night. He had put up the Christmas tree that morning and ate dinner with his wife and two children and was just relaxing like any other Sunday in his life. Around 9.30 PM, Paige noticed Rick twitching his face and she asked him if he was OK. He did not respond. She got up and touched his hand and raised it, but it fell down. He was loosing air fast. She called 911. She was told to give him CPR which she did and the ambulance took him to hospital. Rick died at 1.15 AM.

For the whole day, I was under the grip of this unexplainable and inconsolable sense of sadness and grief, thinking about the kind of man Rick was, the inevitability and unpredictability of death and the mystery of life itself.

Although I work as a hospice chaplain, Rick's death affected me so much because he was like family. I had the honor of officiating his marriage six years ago. With profound sadness, I also officiated his funeral on Wednesday. It was a difficult week. Tomorrow is Sunday, and the Lord will once again lift my spirits.

The book is finally at the printer

Today I submitted the manuscript for my book: "God is Plural: Sermons for an Emerging Church." It has been a long and instructive process but worth every minute of it. For years, people have asked me as to when I was going to publish my book. Because, the assumption is that once you have a doctorate, you have to publish a book. I resisted that temptation for a long time. I said to myself that, unless I had something worthwhile to say,I am not going to contribute to the desctruction of one more tree. I was not going to write a book just for the sake of it.

Finally, the time came and the inner voice seemed right and I am publishing this book.It contains my life philosophy, my ideas about God, Jesus, religion, discipleship etc. I believe that there is a lot of misunderstanding about these topics. I wanted to add my two cents with the hope that it might help some one in their spiritual journey. It is an invitation of consciously unlearn what has been unconsiciously learned. When it comes to religion, most of our learning is "unconscious" and that explains the many problems in society we have today.

I invite everyone to wake up, pay attention and be a conscious participant in this adventure called LIFE!

OBAMA THE PEACEMAKER

I was so delighted to hear the news of President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize I had to call my wife immediately to share the news. Anyone who wants peace and loves peace has to be happy about it. For those who want a world in conflict this is bad news. Why did the Nobel Committee award him the prize? He has been president only for nine months. He was not even nominated for the prize. Yet why was he selected for this honor?I see two reasons. First,the world at large yearns for peace. The Nobel Committee is hitching its wagon behind Obama hoping that he would work tirelessly to make this world free of nuclear weapons.

But more importantly, I believe that the award is more personal, given to a man who embodies peace. He talks about international co-operation and dialogue as means to solve problems than unilateralism and war. He deserves the award just for dreaming of a world where no country has nuclear weapons.

One question that has been repeatedly asked here and abroad is: "What has he done to deserve this award? It is not an award for "doing" but for "being". Mahatma Gandhi,one of the greatest peacemakers of all times said: "There is no way to peace, peace is the way." Before "working for peace" a person has to "be peace". I think Obama was given the award for his peaceful "demeanor" towards the world more than any one particular thing he has done. It is my hope and prayer this award will give him more courage to pursue peace everywhere, always and all ways.