i love what i do.

our large and extended cryderman family has enjoyed an e-mail loop for years now. aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, cousins, nieces, nephews. we’re all on it, and not a day goes by when there aren’t birthday wishes, random ponderings, recipes, stories, inquiries on what everyone’s doing…reading…listening to. i have grown to love this loop.
the other day, after a long day at work, my dad sent his ‘ponderings’ out to void.
my dad is a hospital chaplain…but you ask anyone who works with him, he runs that place.

by ‘poppa’:

i love what i do…
i really do. Sometimes I actually have to finally tell myself to go home…not that it is fun, but it engages so much of who I am and what I value that I realize it is 5:30, like today, and I was supposed to leave at 4:30. Today, I shared with a couple the agony of their full term, first baby loss…and later, was paged to join our nurses on the Fourth Floor as we arranged a birthday celebration for a patient turning 94. Later, one of my favorite nurses asked me to come and take pictures of a patient she had…a lady in her early 60’s who had beat breast cancer but now was facing a recurrence with mets throughout her body. The patient was a retired travel agent and yesterday, she had lamented she would never be able to see Hawaii again. The nurse was determined she would…so she stopped at a party store and bought leis for the fourth floor nursing staff, and flowers for them to wear in their hair…and she bought them for the patient as well…and she bought a fancy flamingo glass for the patient’s beverages, and other decor for the room…the patient’s husband was let in on the secret and he wore a Hawaiian shirt…it was incredible, and the patient was so wondrously happy…and I took pictures of them all…and the husband even brought in a grass skirt and my nurse friend wore it over her uniform all day…and the patient’s husband even wore a flower “bra” over his shirt….it was like Hawaii came to our hospital. Then, a friend of mine passed me in the hallway and, in tears told me her husband had a massive heart attack and would I come and pray with them….and I spent much time with them in our surgical intensive care unit…and there were many other very special moments in my day, but I came home late and thanked God for the opportunities and blessings wrapped in challenges….and my friend’s husband is shocking the doctors in his slight and steady improvement. My intensivist doctor friend couldn’t believe it as he had told me he was most likely not going to make it…and as he began to suggest some of their intervention might be working, I interrupted him and said, “Dr. T, I would like to remind you of GOD’S intervention….remember, you allowed me and the family in for prayer.” And he smiled, laughed and said–that actually is the best explanation of the moment! Life is too short not to love what you do.

…and i guess that’s the best preface to a day full of pictures.

i love what i do.

and i love my camera.

i love this next one…

thank you, samantha, trace, peyton, noah, cameryn, riley & jack. you are all very lovely littles.

~k