The Flame of Florence Nightingale’s Legacy

 

“Today, our world needs healing and to be rekindled with Love.

 

Once, Florence Nightingale lit her beacon of lamplight to comfort the wounded

and her Light has blazed a path of service across a Century to us,

through her example and through the countless Nurses and Healers

who have followed in her footsteps.

 

Today, we celebrate the flame of Florence Nightingale's Legacy.

Let that same Light be rekindled to burn brightly in our hearts.

Let us take up our own Lanterns of Caring, each in our own ways.

To more brightly walk our own paths of service to the World.

To more clearly share our own Noble Purpose with each other.

 

May Human Caring become the Lantern for the 21st  Century.

May we better learn to care for ourselves,

for each other and for all Creation.

Through our Caring, may we be the Keepers of that Flame.

That Our Spirits may burn brightly

to kindle the hearts of our children and great-grandchildren

as they too follow in these footsteps.”

 

Deva-Marie Beck, PhD, RN

• from her Keynote Address at “An International Tribute to Florence Nightingale at Scutari” in Istanbul United Nations Human Settlements HABITAT II Summit, 1996

• featured in the June, 1998 issue of “Journal of Holistic Nursing”

• keynoted at the National Cathedral, Washington, DC Commemorative Services for Florence Nightingale, Nurses and Nursing, August 12, 2001 and May 9, 2004.

• and included in Florence Nightingale Today: Healing, Leadership, Global Action American Nurses Association’s NursesBooks.org

 

Please feel free to use this above prayer —with attribution to our website — in your personal and collective prayers for healing, for nurses, and for our world.