On Stage

For some reason, I've had one thought on my mind all day long:

The earth is a stage and Heaven is the audience.

Is that original?

Did I make that up?

or was it Shakespeare? :)

Not too long ago, I cared for an elderly patient who had been devastated by a stroke. He could barely move and his speech had been reduced to unintelligible mumbling.
It was late in the evening and I entered his room and began to reposition him for his first few hours of sleep.
The door was closed.
The curtains were pulled.
As I often do, I leaned over his bed and began to softly sing Amazing Grace.
He closed his eyes and with his garbled slurred voice, began to sing along with me. The words were so slurred in fact, that had I not known the song, I wouldn't have recognized it.
He was out of breath at the end, and we were both in tears but we finished all the verses I knew.

Without a doubt, it was one of my most poignant moments in my career.
I imagine that all of Heaven paused to hear that man's song of praise.

The earth is a stage and Heaven is the audience