Category Archives: Death and living while dying
Work to do
The loving have work to do right up to the last minute. :- Doug.
These days we die so gradually we barely notice
These days we die so gradually we barely notice. Then comes the crisis—and we’re unprepared. So let’s work out how we can notice, perhaps prepare. We get weaker. There are ups and downs. People offer to help. We can resolve … Continue reading →
Medicine extending our days
Medicine can extend our days. In so doing, extend our suffering. :- Doug.
Honor the time of dying
Honor the time of dying. Recoil not. Perhaps there is learning, even beauty here. Honor the time of dying. :- Doug.
Remembering how
Remembering how Inventing how At times that’s why we converse How to what? Die Be present for this one dying Be present for this one living :- Doug.
Remember your dying
Remember your dying. :- Doug.
safe from the crisis
The conversations I invite take place safe from the crisis. Yet they prepare us for the crisis. In a sense they are memento mori (remember dying): memento viventium (remember living) in the face of memento mori. Not so we have … Continue reading →
Growth of a different sort?
As we get older our species Draws ever smaller circles Community becomes friends Becomes family—reversing Our course of younger years Growth of a different sort? Growth work that especially The dying and the demented do :- Doug.
Working on Wills
I work on people’s wills—their will to care well for one another in and out of nursing homes, in end of life, in families. :- Doug.
“I want this one”
If God has indicated “I want this one,” what is the purpose of our actively fighting the summons? :- Doug.
Morally wrong to lengthen life?
If it is wrong morally to shorten life, is it as wrong to lengthen? Is it wrong morally to do inadvertent violence to one dying or to his or her family? :- Doug.
“Do everything”
Let me say to you, sir or ma’am this thing that you don’t like the beeps and bustle all about the groans all within knowing not what we mean when on and on we say “do everything” the way the … Continue reading →
There is no natural reluctance
There is no natural reluctance To converse of death and dying ‘Tis the work of culture—ours :- Doug.
meaning in completion
If the meaning of life is life, then how much is in the completion of it? :- Doug.
can deny our loved ones a gentle easy death
With the long tail illnesses we now have, we may not be able to choose our own deaths, but we certainly can deny our loved ones a gentle easy death. We subject them to hours and days of suffering and … Continue reading →
While we’re dying
You’re dying. I’m dying. There, we have said it. We are all dying. Some sooner than others. It is a matter of degree, of timing. It is a sure thing. Let us be kind to one another. So let’s talk … Continue reading →
Uncertain
The more we can do to help a disease, the more uncertain the timing. As diseases move from acute to chronic, the less we know when our end is coming. :- Doug.