A Blessing for Finding Healing and Hope

A Blessing for Finding Healing and Hope 

Week of the Nurse 2022

This is a blessing to acknowledge the challenges you have faced, 

The weight you have carried,

The storms you have endured.

You have worked tirelessly, 

Bringing healing and hope to your patients and their loved ones, 

And it has come at a cost. 

You gave until it hurt, and then you gave a little more, 

Showing up for this beautiful, terrible work

Over and over and over again.

So let this blessing pour into you

Without the expectation that you rush to pour it back out.

(You have permission to be selfish with it.)

May this blessing affirm your worth apart from your work, 

And lift up the unique gift that is you. 

May it be that persistent voice that tells you, 

Over and over and over again,

That you are good, and you are kind, and you are enough.

May it encourage you to pause and to breathe, 

To take time and create space for rest and renewal,

And help you receive the healing and hope you so freely give to others.

And when you are ready, may this blessing become a hopeful anchor

That keeps you more secure in the storm

Because it helps you remember your capacity to do hard things.

May it always bear witness to your sorrow and struggle without watering them down, 

And point toward the compassion and the empathy that we all need to make it through.  

And finally, since you don’t hear this as much as you should, 

May this blessing be our way of sharing our gratitude for you

And that it is an honor to serve together.

Thank you for sharing the gift of yourself here in this place.

May this blessing be a celebration of all that you are.

Elizabeth Smith-Bartlett, M.Div., M.S., is a second year chaplain resident at VCU Health in Richmond, VA. She serves as the unit chaplain to the medical respiratory intensive care unit and the medical intermediate/intensive care unit, which have been the primary Covid-19 ICUs since the start of the pandemic. Prior to VCU, Elizabeth completed additional CPE units in Ft. Worth, TX, and New Haven, CT. She is ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and has served congregations in Connecticut and New York.