God, Grant Me the Serenity

I have held life in my hands,
And it depended on me to do the right thing.
And I have watched many take their last breath,
While I wished them a better journey on the other side.
I have watched babies being born blue, and still live.
I have pushed on some-ones' heart,
So many compressions per minute,
And chased the ashen gray pallor from their skin.
I have been the first to arrive and helped to save a life,
And the last to leave, when we got there too late, to matter.
I have cleaned the bodies of the dead,
And taken them to the morgue to wait for morticians.
I have heard lonely old people tell fascinating stories,
To me, a total stranger, because they had no one else.
I have seen the gift of life, and the blessing of death,
And everything in between.
I have seen people who have hurt themselves,
Or the victims of others rage, in shock and despair,
And I have seen the timid to shy to ask for help.
I have looked into the eyes of madness,
And believed, I was in the presence of demons.
I have seen people maintain sanity in the most insane moments.
And should I doubt myself today at all,
What I should do, is walk down memory lane,
Because nothing I face today,
is as hard as what I know to be,
Nothing today is as hard as what I have seen,
Or had to deal with as part of my job.
And if I could deal with life and death and not lose myself,
Then today, I can get through anything.
God, grant me the Serenity….
4/23/2004