Common Holy

I  walk into the hospital, go to my office and the first thing I do is make myself a cup of chamomile tea, from a simple common tea bag, in a simple, common mug. I turn on the computer; pull out the notebook I use on my rounds, pen and the paper referral sheets.  All very common everyday items the computer, notebook, pen and paper.  And it is with these common items I start my daily rounds.

After 16 years of chaplaincy the sights, sounds and smells of the hospital are common to me, familiar. I daily remind myself that for many I meet today this may not be the case. For those who struggle with chronic illness the routine of hospital life may be very familiar and common. I never know what the day will bring. Today it seems will be common.  My visits consist of “thank you for coming chaplain, please have a prayer with me.” I pray and ask “is there anything else I can help with?” The answer is no. There have been no code blues, no death calls, no trauma calls, and no crisis to attend to.

Days like this I call breathing days. These days provide space for me to wander through my day with a slower pace.  I may sit down at a nursing station and ask about the day. The nurses invite me into their conversation. We chat about the day, about kids, about the weekend plans. Compared to many of my conversations, these can be common to the point of mundane.

To an outsider it might look like I am wasting time or being a distraction.  However it is much to the contrary. When you work amidst the types of things we do, bringing light to the common and normal can be a refreshing grounding and centering experience amidst the chaos of hospital life. But it is more than that.  These are connecting moments.  They are moments when I am seen as more than just the chaplain that represents the spiritual.  I become known as that mom who is also struggling with the work/life balance, wondering how it is that my child’s schedule got almost overwhelming overnight.  They discover that I love to escape into a good fantasy book or take out my frustrations on a punching bag in my Tae Kwon Do workout, or some other surprising fact about myself. It is in that moment of connection of the common that I become human and trust is built for the next time when it may not be such a common conversation.

In my line of work it can be easy to see the Holy ground as I sit at the bedside of a dying person and their family or the visit where we get to the real deep and vulnerable stuff and the person has an aha moment.  Those are Holy ground moments that are easily seen.  What I tend to forget is that Holy ground happens every single day around me. Holy ground is in those moments of common chatting because connecting person to person is Holy ground. It happens in the moment an offhand appropriately humorous comment provides laughter in the midst of a busy and stress filled day.

I am working hard right now to recognize these common Holy ground moments in my personal life and in my work as a chaplain. I am doing this because I have come to realize that it is the common Holy that keeps me grounded in my own faith. It helps me remember that a deep spirituality in me does not have to be complicated or amazing. The common Holy helps remind me that simple can be a jumping off point for a deep and grounded spirituality also.

It is the recognition of the common Holy that I carry with me into a day that looks to be one of calm simplicity, until the moment the pager goes off and I dive into the chaos taking with me the grounded spirituality that living in the common Holy has given me.