This morning I spent a couple hours with the chaplain of Hospice of the Valley. He is a long-time dear friend and my graphic design company has done a great deal of work for him over the years. We were talking about legacies … my favorite topic, of course … because that subject comes up regularly when he is spending time with hospice patients. He has an interesting analogy. He says his job is to come into their lives when they are rounding third base and to help get them home safely. Isn’t that a great mental picture? He’s a third-base coach.
By the time someone is headed home, they have been up to bat and one way or another, made it to first base, second base and possibly third base. The cheering is not over, the score is not yet up on the board but most of that “up” is complete. You can’t go back, there typically aren’t do-vers, the marks are in the score-keeper’s book.
And what does this have to do with anything? I’m thinking that as we are all running around the diamonds of our lives, we might want to be thinking about our legacies, what we have done or said that will be forever linked to our names. The next batter up may hit a home run and we’ll be rounding third sooner than we’d planned.
We should all be so blessed to have a third-base coach like my friend.
Filed under: Relationships
Very touching article Vickie.
You are truly a thoughtful, caring individual.
This reminded me of the time my father spent in hospice.
Thank you.
Stanley Bronstein
http://stanleybronstein.com
MrAchievement