We Are All Enough

by Rev. Pamela Dawn deForest Hancock

September 2014

As I’ve progressed through the Chaplaincy Institute and Starr King School for the Ministry, I have struggled with this concept of ENOUGH. Am I enough to do this work? Do I have enough knowledge? Enough patience? Enough empathy? Enough courage – to meet people where they are at:  scared and lonely and searching?

It wasn’t until the middle of my Internship as a Chaplain this summer that I came up with the answer. That answer my friends and family is: YES!

I now stand before you—knowing that not only AM I ENOUGH, but Source has also made each and every one of you ENOUGH unto yourselves to do whatever you’re calling is. For each of you has a purpose in this Divine Web of Life.

This summer I aligned with my purpose. It was amidst my interactions with humanity caught at the threshold between the worlds that I saw my life clearly. It was at the bedside of a young woman on the brink of death, malnourished and suffering from a drug addiction. It was in speaking with a Holocaust survivor, sad after the loss of his wife of 60 years, who was suffering from pneumonia. It was in praying with a beautiful Baptist woman whose elbow surgery had gone wonderfully. It was in sending up praise and gratitude with the man who gotten in a motorcycle accident on the Bay Bridge. It was in the emotions stirred by these encountered that inspired me to write and in the art that emitted from my hands in exaltation.

In all of these moments I felt alive, and I knew that all of my sorrows and woes, triumphs and talents have led me to this point in time, when I am called to help others. I understood that I AM here to nourish others’ unique connection to the Divine Web of All Creation—through compassion, acceptance, deep listening, ritual, art, and poetry.

So I ask you today:

Where has Source led you?
What is your thread in that Great Web?
What Divinely inspired gifts and talents sit unlocked within you?
And what makes you know that you are ENOUGH?