Daffney and Dulce have a play time inside our home for a while every morning.
One activity when they are together is to occupy this chair beside our bed. Often it is Daffeny who succeeds to run and occupy the chair. On such occasions when Dulce did not have her turn, Dulcie would occupy the chair after Daffeny returned to her kennel.
I have found this as a comforting sight. Dulce would let Daffeny have the turn because Dulce knows that she is inside the house and can have her turn to occupy the chair anytime.
Letting go for others! This is not a common choice anyone would normally make.
Yesterday I heard a colleague mention to me that she often waits till others get in to the bus she has to take to go back home in the evening. In this process, the bus gets full and she is left behind to wait for the next bus. This makes her travelling time to reach home almost three hours. She is habituated to let others have a preference. I was moved to hear this because it is exceptional.
I have had to reflect on this theme in my life!
How often can I let go for the sake of others. I felt disturbed yesterday, when the counter staff served tea to someone behind me because that person was known to the counter staff. If such an insignificant thing disturbs me, I am far from being sufficiently generous towards others.
Another striking thing about our two dogs is their play time when they are together. They like to pick up a toy and run after each other to fetch it from each other. They invariably take turn let go of it from the mouth to allow the other to have it and run with it.
As I ruminate over this sight I watch almost every day, I realise that the instinct to be ahead of others can be a selfish pursuit to exclude others.
As health care professionals we teach and project the mission of becoming a team and collaborate. I sometimes wonder if that is what we practice!
I admire my colleagues for many reasons. Recently it was about the way they coped with the absence of two members of the team. Both of them were away on maternity leave for six months. One of them was the office secretary, who normally manages all the logistics of fixing appointments for children, keep the multiple registers, respond to telephone calls, enter data into the computer, correspondence, etc. Each of my colleagues took turn to do all of these in the absence of the secretary. This meant some of them going home later than they are to go! This gave me a vivid sense of the mission of self giving they carry with them. They have undertaken this extra responsibility spontaneously and joyfully. They were the last to leave home in the evening from our block!
There is another way than competition in professional service.
Living and serving mindfully, keeping the larger needs in perspective!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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