Listening demonstrates respect, which is the basis of caring. It does not move us to act but rather to know and understand another person. Failure to listen makes caregivers less than we ought to be and robs our patients of the opportunity to experience being cared for. Listening creates a basis for connection. In illness, the patient and the caregiver face mortality together.
Illness delivers both into a place of vulnerability, where care and healing unfold.
In this context, love is not romantic love but rather what the ancient Greeks called agape. Agape involves caring for someone enough to help him or her be and become what he or she wishes. It is this form of loving that underpins the belief that patient care and well-being are the sacred responsibility of both the individual caregiver and the system in which care is provided. Love gives us vision. Love is the expression of compassion and the protection of human dignity.