I’ve Got Time for You

2/17/2025

In Power and Care: Toward Balance for Our Common Future - Science, Society,

and Spirituality (2019), Frédéric Laloux discusses power and care in

organizations. He tells the story of a home care organization in the Netherlands

that changed its methods from operating as a machine to listening to where the

organization was moving as a living organism. 

Prior to the shift, a series of efficiencies were put in place for “continuous

improvement”: Nurses were expected to spend only fifteen minutes in each

home, then they could spend only two minutes changing a compression sock,

then they had to scan barcodes as they entered and exited homes. Increasingly

burned out, nurses did not have a chance to get to know their patients, and

patients didn’t get to know the nurses, because there was always a new one

working in order to save time. One nurse began to question this mechanistic way

of working: “[T]he purpose is not to give efficient shots, but for patients to live

rich and autonomous lives.”

In 2006, Jos De Blok founded Buurtzorg, or neighborhood care, in which the

nurse spends time talking with their patient, drinking coffee and asking questions

such as, “What is it that you can still do in life? What is it that you can no longer

do? Do you have children? Oh, your children don’t help you because you don’t

get along. In that case, could I help you to reestablish dialogue?” Rather than

rushing in an out of a home, these nurses spent time listening to their patients

and nurturing caring relationships.

The organization currently has 15,000 employees, and they use only “40% of the

hours prescribed by doctors because patients become autonomous so much

faster”. Their website states that they have now expanded to 24 countries and

serve children and families and apply the model of care to mental health and

domestic support.

Is this the kind of care and support that spiritual directors/companions offer to

their clients? Though spiritual direction/companionship is a different discipline

than nursing, some of the practices are similar, especially those practiced by the

employees of Buurtzorg. Spiritual guides skillfully and deeply listen, promote

justice, and are present without judgment and with compassion and peace. They

are attentive to the movements of the universe, of their heart-minds and their

bodies, of culture, and of the hospitable ways their clients open their lives and

share their stories. They believe that transformation is possible, and that there is

the possibility of newness and change with every encounter.

Several months ago, just as I was about to share something difficult with a dear

spiritual director friend, she leaned forward and said, “I’ve got time for you.” Just

as with Buurtzorg, clients within a spiritual guidance relationship thrive through

safe and brave spaces that nurture interconnection, humanity, love, and

abundance. A worldview of “I’ve got time for you” enlivens and heals.