During Health Care Week – and every week – we are grateful for everything SSM Health team members do to ensure our patients experience God’s healing presence and receive the best possible care every time they enter our doors.
Our providers, nurses, support staff and caregivers are the heart and hands of our Mission – and God’s healing presence shines through all that they do. It is in this spirit that we open our week-long celebrations and invite our staff and community to pause with us for a special Blessing of the Hands self-reflection.
Blessing of the Hands Reflection
Sit back in your seat, allow yourself to feel both of your feet on the floor. Take a deep breath and rest your hands gently in your lap. Take notice of your hands and their uniqueness. These amazing hands are your instruments of service for others.
Remember these are the most amazing hands you have ever seen. The best tools ever made.
As you look inward, contemplate your hands and consider the oldest hands that have rested in your hands. Now, think of the hands of a newborn child and their incredible beauty and delicacy.
Our hands are RESILIENT. They hold memories. Think of all that your hands have done over the years. Remember the first time you tied your own shoes. Think of the day you could write your own name or unwrap your first gifts. Your first time driving.
Our hands show RESPECT, even REVERENCE. They were made not just for ourselves but also, for others. How often were your hands given to assist another? Remember all of the work they have done. Think of the tears they have wiped away, your own or another’s and remember the healing they have experienced.
There are hands of varied colors, hands that are wrinkled, those that are callused.
Consider the creative expressions of your hands and others – playing a musical instrument, wood working, weaving, painting, so many ways to use our hands in service.
This work of our hands, we see daily at SSM Health:
- There are hands that bathe, shower and dress patients needing assistance.
- Other hands prepare and deliver delicious food to patients, families and employees.
- There are hands that clean and wax our floors, always mindful of appearance and safety.
- Other hands are extended and welcoming to new patients and family members during admission.
- Hands carry packages and reports.
- Hands assist us in our electronic record keeping.
- We see others using their hands to start an IV, pass medications, perform surgery, turn a patient or push a stretcher.
- There are hands paying bills, preparing our payrolls, balancing our budgets.
- Still other hands are shaping culture, developing policies and strategies for growth and the continued success of SSM Health.
- There are hands checking for safe equipment. Other hands are repairing or building new things to improve the SSM Health ministries.
Take a moment to notice that and feel gratitude and appreciation for the service that is provided through the use of your hands.
Whether it be holding the hand of someone who has just received challenging news, stroking the face of someone who is frightened, touching the arm of someone in pain, holding and comforting a crying child, holding the hands of your aging parents, tucking a blanket around someone carefully and caringly.
All acts of kindness that are performed by your hands throughout the day allow you to make a difference.
So, remember as you go about your work – your service and tender care – to stop now and again to appreciate your hands, to feel gratitude for your hands, and to use them with purpose for the good of all humankind.
Take a moment for a couple of deep breaths. Open your eyes and gently return to this space.
God Bless each of you and enjoy our week-long celebration!
link