Michael Ortiz Hill
This book is written for anyone who takes the matter of compassion seriously. In such a time as we live, I dare say nothing is more important. Simple-minded and stubborn, this book proposes that compassion is a craft and thus can be learned and practiced like cultivating crops or raising animals. The refinement of compassion, like any true craft, is a life s work. The transition to caring for the ill is as fierce as any tribal rite of initiation, though few speak of it as such. From listening to the stories of doctors and nurses, three intertwining themes emerge that define the struggle to keep the heart open. First, there is staggering within the reality of suffering, the sheer mass of unanswerable needs. How does one sift through overwhelm and find the person of the other, as well the presence of oneself? How does one gracefully discern what can be given and what cannot? What is the place of kindness and generosity towards oneself? Second, there is the specific shape of oneself, one
Nurses,Nursing,Health,Health Care
Conspiracies of Kindness: The Craft of Compassion at the Bedside of the Ill