Dear colleagues: I believe that charging adequately for our services and providing services for clients who cannot pay in full or in part are both important. I heard a relevant analogy so long ago that I don't remember the source. It goes something like this... Imagine a waitress whose job realistically permits her to serve well five tables at a time in a busy restaurant. There are always more tables to be served, more people who need help. If she tries to be the one to serve the entire restaurant, she will serve no one well. She will also be unable to engage in any self-care, eventually preventing her from helping anyone at all. Self-care and earning a living are both appropriate. Identifying what tables we can realistically serve well is appropriate. There is so much need in the world that many people try to do too much. And some people ignore that vast need entirely. It seems to me that neither extreme works very well. Each of us must find our own balance of self-care and care of others. The balance that works now may not work later. The balance that works for me may not work for any of you. Finding the balance is ongoing, dynamic, individualized, and--in my experience--quite difficult! Grateful for the role models who charge sufficiently, who provide free care, and who work to find the personally right balance of doing both, Cynthia Cynthia Good Mojab, MS, IBCLC Ammawell Email: [log in to unmask] Web site: http://home.attbi.com/~ammawell *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html