Frosty Foothills: A Metaphor for CPE

Written by Andrew S. Thompson

It is difficult for me to describe my CPE journey as anything but that, a journey. At the same time, descriptions falter to depict the scenes I’ve seen. Words are insufficient. The hospital is filled with the ineffable. Yet, I’m reminded of a hike, in snowy Appalachia, trekking through a foot of snow to witness the glory of creation.

 

When I look

up at the heavenly hospital lamps,

When I look

down at the life giving river of IV fluids, I ponder, what is human-

kind? They are

fragile, with everything under their feet, but are like chaff in the wind.

Oh how precious that chaff is.

dust which returns to the earth,

like the beast of the fields which perish,

like that earth which God said of it “tov meod!”

Oh how stunning that wind is. That frosty wind which wicks away wisdom,

                  worries

                  hopes,

                  humanity.

And when the sun sets, they seem to know before it darkens, whence they say

   “at my vindication I shall see

     Your face; when I awake, I shall be satisfied, beholding Your likeness” (Pslm 17:16).

Andrew S. Thompson is a CPE summer intern at UNC Rex Hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina, and an M.Div 3rd-year student at Duke Divinity School.