With Mayo Clinic oncologist Edward T. Creagan, M.D.

I am profoundly grateful for the spirited and thoughtful dialogue on the issue of Mother Teresa, stress, and dealing with some of life's challenges. This issue became especially relevant one evening last week.

I had the opportunity of addressing a marvelous group of clergy honoring a deceased minister for his contributions to the mind, body, spirit connection. I was asked to address the issue of stress and burnout among the clergy.

As with many professionals, the clergy are under enormous stress because of the demands of the parishioners and the need to be constantly "on call" in our current digital age. Upon review of the literature, I learned that many clergy in fact become the CEOs of multimillion dollar corporations with a volunteer staff numbering into the hundreds and many of them were not trained to deal with these sorts of responsibilities. Burnout can certainly be the result.

Now for the fascinating part; before the program began, a respected member of the clergy community offered an invocation. He specifically made the comment " ... letting go gives us peace ... " He then offered a simple gesture of his outstretched hands and his palms upward clearly indicating a sense of letting go of many of the entanglements that tend to wear us down.

A very simple phrase and a very simple gesture which really stays with me as our lives continue to be buffeted by forces and factors over which we have no control. But, we do have control over our attitude and how we face some of these struggles.

May this week bring peace and harmony to each of us.

Dr. Ed

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