Hiking through End Time

I speak to those of us moving through final stages. This random series sheds light--and heart--on End Time, or End Life, our last great challenge, and our last opportunity to shine.

Along the way I will have much to say about the effective beauties of Hospice.  My readers are those already on the Hospice path, those weighing the option, and the often poorly informed relatives and caregivers who need to know what Hospice
is all about. How can their arduous and often lonely tasks be eased and supported by the Hospice Way, the way of loving, palliative care?

I am interested in two questions: First, how, without “curative” support,  can we continue to resist the cannibalism that consumes our bodies? What can we do to strengthen and encourage ourselves? What tools can help us along?

Second, how do we most effectively, even joyously, make use of these few extra weeks or months? The The first question deals with rest, exercise, palliative medications, appetite, oxygen, etc. This question is secondary because it deals with means rather than end.
 
Whether we have a few uncertain weeks left, or a year or more, the important, the all-important question is, How do we live our lives? In the present? In the Now? Where do we turn for richness, humor, value? How do we continue to find Quality in our own hearts, in those who surround us, in flowers, music and light? How can we know joy?
 
Blog entries will most often include poetry, teachings, heart based tales, relevant memories from my own eight year struggle with two fatal cancers, and ways to delight the senses. Two relevant mantras: As in all aspects of our passage through life, “Make the most of it!”  And, with as much awe and gratitude and affirmation as we can muster, “Viva la Vida!”
 
Enough for an introduction. I’ll end today with a poem I wrote almost eight years ago, shortly after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma. May these words touch your heart.
 
A LONG WALK IN THE FIELD AFTER BAD NEWS
 
Slow down, old friend. Come home.
Listen to the trilling meadowlarks.
Celebrate the magic song of life
Shining in this field at late light.
 
Succumb to the mood of the pale moon,
Who casts her spell upon the tides,
Bewitching every creature of the sea.
 
Inhale the pinon-scented breeze of dawn,
When dew sits like hand-strewn pearls
Upon the fading light of autumn leaves.
 
Relax, my friend.  In all these wonders
And a thousand more, life still sings.

Leonard Bird