Lori Niles
Palliative Care Chaplain, Community Regional Medical Center
WE ARE CHAPLAINS
We are the pray-ers,
The chanters, the criers,
The truth tellers, mystics,
Who sit around fires of ancient tradition
And modern eruptions
Of love and of purpose, and of humble endurance,
Of wishing and longing and gut-wrenching grieving
Honoring life before physically leaving.
We bear witness to trauma too raw yet to voice.
We sit with the knowledge that impact a choice
To be human in ways that the soul only know—
Awareness awakens, takes root and then grows.
We hold open silence and space for the darkness,
For doubting and hating, resisting and violence.
We sing hymns, reframe hope,
Charm the stories and fables.
Past, present, and future collide at Life’s table
In moments too poignant to grasp or to sever
A light flashes brightly,
And change is forever.
Rev. Dr. Lori Niles
Palliative Care Chaplain
Community Regional Medical Center
Fresno, California
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