shoelaces

I've tried to teach my boys how to tie their shoes several times.  Half-hearted attempts.  They've never had tie shoes, so it never stuck.  But last week Jake needed running shoes.  So once again it was "make a bow.  Loop around.  Tuck it under.  Pull it tight."  It seems so easy.  I can do it without a thought.  But for the boys it is confusing, tricky and daunting.  I'm trying to be patient!!


Speaking of daunting....I've been shadowing chaplains during orientation at my new job.  They talk about facilities I've never heard of, charting I don't understand, acronyms I'm struggling to learn - ALF, SNF, IDG, COPD, ETC.....  Every day I feel waves of panic threatening to crash.  How am I ever going to assimilate all this?


I try to remember that 15 months ago I was totally overwhelmed in Spartanburg.  I got lost every time I left our office.  I couldn't find Oncology or Surgery.   I was baffled by the triple charting system.  I had to differentiate between NICU, PICU, STICU and CCU.  And suddenly I was taking interviewees on tours, and teaching externs all the ins and outs.  It comes.  It comes.  IT COMES.


John Ortberg writes about an old story of an ambitious young person approaching a master and saying "I want to be your student, your best student.  How long must I study?"
"Ten years."
"But ten years is too long.  What if I study twice as hard as all your other students?"
"Then it will take twenty years."


Deep breath. Be patient.  It comes.


And while I wait,  here is a beautiful prayer from Saint Teresa.


Let naught trouble thee;
Let naught frighten thee;
All Things pass.
God alone changeth not.
Patience can do all things.
Whoever has God, has everything.
God alone sufficeth.