I had a difficult time comeing up with a title for this blog entry and maybe just should have left it untitled, but essentially it is just one of many blogs concerning thoughts about my career as a respiratory therapist. Obviously, working in hospitals doing emergency and critical care provides plenty of food for thought!
The title is a reference to one of the Buddha's Eightfold Path. I have found that as powerful as working with the sick and dying can be in spirtual work, it is also just as much a hindrance. I think that I may have hoped that just being in this type of career would lead to some kind of spiritual awakening, as foolish as it sounds as I write it. The fact is, of course, that without practice and right intent, this type of work can build huge barriers in the form of despair, egotism, frustration, and anger. The situations one is exposed to can easily feed all of these, as I have experienced first hand over and over.
I have found that I can be addicted to the cycles of despair and anger and numbness that are inevitable when consistently faced with every kind of human tragedy. As I forge ahead with this blog and again explore my self in relation to the events of my life I hope to record some insights that I can refer back to and may even help someone else.
Well, the tone of this blog will remain conversational and so my entries may wander a bit or go places I did not intend, so I think I will keep this one general in subject, basically an insight into where I will be coming from. I am very emotionally involved in my work and it can be very dramatic. I look foward to trying and putting my experience into terms that will promote positive spiritual growth instead of contributing to cycles of despair and burnout, anger and negative emotion.
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