Vulnerable

This afternoon our boy climbed up something and fell onto our tiled kitchen floor. He chipped his two front teeth and screamed for an hour until the casualty doctor at the hospital gave him something that helped the pain and settled him. When we got back from hospital he played happily all afternoon as if nothing had happened.

We don't feel as resilient. While Kym stayed with James, I went to open a file for him, listening to him screaming all the while. The poor clerk who was getting the details from me had to wade through my tears too. Not a good day. Even as he sleeps now, we both feel as if we're grieving.

I have been in that casualty ward a number of times with frightened, grieving people. Sometimes a hospital visit can be just one more thing to squeeze into a full day. Today's was one of the more trivial cases that casualty would have dealt with, but I hope that I will never again trivialise pastoral contact in that place.

Love makes you very vulnerable.