My first and last client

It looks like the very first client I had this past year - will also be my last client. She is my last scheduled appointment for my internship. I told her today that she had been my first client - and we laughed about those circumstances in which she had first come in. I can't say more than that, but she looked at me, shaking her head and said - 'well, you must be in the right field, because only someone who was following their calling would still be here after that.'

I will miss her. I will wonder how her life continues to unfold. She's not the only client that has been with me for the last year. There are others - and I feel the same sense of 'wrongness' being the one to leave them. It should be the other way around.

And there is nothing I can do. I have to leave and they can't follow me. Not because I've signed any sort of disclosure with my agency but because these clients don't have the resources to follow me into private practice. That is the nature of working at a non profit. And so, I'm left with goodbyes that are heartfelt and filled with caring. I won't leave anything unsaid and I will give them the chance to say anything that they need to say. I will think of them with the blessings of hope and love.

And this is what I think of at last:

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can
and wisdom to know the difference.