Welcome - personal message.
Dear Friends,
Thanks for your interest in my website – I am
speaking only for myself, not on behalf of any organization. Death
work is important and needed in our culture. It is work that should be
shared, since sooner or later, we all will need it.
If you get nothing else from this website, please know this: It is not a foregone conclusion that some people are just better than others at handling illness and death. I came to understand that helping people at end-of-life is a skill that can be learned and developed by asking questions and using attentional acivities.
I put together this package of questions and
practices because have a personal history of being seriously freaked
out by death. A few years ago I was forced to attempt to get better at
handling death and terminal illness because I was called upon to help
people I knew. A couple of my friends were going through cancer and
death, and my husband has become quite disabled by Parkinson’s. I
also took on nursing as a second career, and I found myself in the
position of helping many people at end-of-life. It was simply time I
stepped up to the task!
I have had a regular meditation practice for years. When another one of my friends was diagnosed with cancer, I added death meditations to my repertoire. I also helped to found a Death Cafe in my small town and started reading about death and dying. Also, I started attending small reading and discussion groups on death and dying, in order to act more effectively and improve my caregiving practice. It worked! I have found myself numerous times in intense situations where I can remain calm and do my best caregiving.
We all will experience loss and death, and my wish is that we can better attend our friends, family and clients, and eventually, ourselves.
May we build presence, courage, equanimity, and humor.
Marcie Vallette
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Marcie Vallette