What motivated you to enter Chaplaincy as a career?
I experienced a spiritual "calling" to enter Chaplaincy as a career.
What's the most challenging part of your work?
Staying spiritually centered within me so that I can consistently offer a non-anxious, open, and gentle presence.
What's the most rewarding part of your work?
Hearing, sensing, seeing, and experiencing the inner beauty, struggles, and growth of others journeying with Cancer.
What do you find to be the most helpful when visiting with a cancer patient?
My ability and capacity to be fully present, attentive, and available to my patient's world.
What spiritual or religious resource do you find most personally helpful?
I find prayer, listening, the scriptures, humor, and the spiritual traditions of lament most personally helpful.
What personal characteristics do you believe make an effective chaplain?
Humility, playfulness, empathy, and discerning wisdom.
Are there spiritual/religious topics you personally wrestle with?
I struggle with issues around religious pluralism, racism, and the on-going process of dying to self.
What would you like cancer patients and their families to know about M. D. Anderson?
That MDACC is a complex, competitive, compassionate, comforting and conflicting place at times.
