St. Joseph's Hospice: Physical Therapy

The community service group, ACT, at the International School of Islamabad supports a hospice in the neighboring town of Rawalpindi. This is a long-standing relationship that I have continued with support from teachers and students.

I think I've talked of this organization before, so I'll move into our most recent visit yesterday.

I remain a little hesistant about my own working at the hospice, both because I look towards leadership in others (i.e. staff and students) and because I do not see a role for "me" yet there. I'll explain the latter just so much as to say that I don't know what I can contribute that an average volunteer could not do (if that makes any sense). [I hold an inherent belief, these days, that it is not my role to serve others, but rather to help others serve others].

In any case, I spent my time in the physical therapy room watching man, woman and
******* 8:05 pm Another earthquake *******
child. I spent the time thinking of how blessed are those with the power of touch. It's not a skill most of us lack, however, it is a skill we typically do not employ directly to the care of others.

I must have spent half an hour listening to one man talk to me and watching a woman in a grey shawl with red trim whose lower legs he was massaging. There was a mundane job to be done but there was also intimacy in the act. Words fail me. Read Tuesday's with Morrie and Mitch's mundane act of freeing phlegm by massaging the back of his professor: both routine and loving at the same time.

I have no real point to this posting. I simply wanted to reflect on the beauty in the works of physical therapy being done here.