The image, below, shows the Atlantic approaching a Florida shore. I made it with a special panorama camera. Does it bring you, as a caregiver, a sense of peace? For some, pictures of the sea are restful. For others, they may evoke nightmares.  

    
    One patient may love classical music. Another may find hard rock or rap music more relaxing. One patient may enjoy quiet voices and silence. A second might feel lonely and prefer as much interaction as possible.

   The best caregivers recognize the need to adapt to patient tastes in the same way they seek the correct medicine depending on the physiological profile of that patient.

   In 1977, during my first year as CEO of a hospital, I decided patient rooms needed decoration that would be more likely to promote healing than would blank walls. We acquired some lovely images of nature and began putting them up in selected patient rooms. This would certainly help, right?

   One of the first pictures we put up I picked myself. It was a copy of a famous Ansel Adams print showing a view of Yosemite. Two clouds puffed out the sky. The sun dazzled peaks, illuminated a waterfall and cast stunning shadows across a vast valley.

   Soon, a patient was admitted to the room. Not long after, I received a complaint passed along by a nurse manager: The patient wanted the photograph removed. The two clouds, she said, made her feel depressed. 

   After that, we got an "art cart" so patients could pick pictures that were appealing to them. Living Love means considering what is healing for the patient, not what pleases us.

   Two things seem important to me about differences in taste. First, a key element of self care includes our personal ability to call to mind music, pictures, religious symbols or other thoughts that contribute to our sense of peace. We need to engage these images as part of our own healing.

   Second, caregivers can exert an enormous influence over the environment of patients. Illness and injury create deep vulnerability for each of us. We need to recognize and respect the impact of light, sound, smell, taste and touch on the wide variety of sick people for whom we care.  

   Every so often, during the years I was privileged to lead Nashville's largest hospital, I would encounter a nurse or other caregiver who decided that it was part of her job to convert a "non-believer" to Christianity. It was these times that we took the chance to explain the fine but important difference between living Love and trying to force a vulnerable patient to see it our way.

   We are all blessed with the opportunity to engage images of Love and peace in our lives to help us deal with the suffering we know is always present. Every time we, as caregivers, awaken beauty in ourselves and in the hearts of others we spread Love. When we live Love, we live healing.

-Erie Chapman