II am a teacher and so if I am to be good at my job, I must be prepared. I must have thought through the day's focus, the needs of the class, and be ready to guide the thinking and discussion around that focus. So, when I began an internship as a hospital chaplain, I had to learn an entirely different way to "prepare". I had to learn that I was prepared when I was totally empty of my own agenda. I had to prepare myself to truly listen and that reqruired making space within to receive whatever was about to be received. IF we are too full of ourselves, we have no internal availability to receive the other.