2-27-09

Most of my day I am removed from death although I work at a hospice as a bereavement coordinator.  But, that's just it...I deal with the theory of it- the aftermath.  The actual striking of the chime,  the  moment when life and lifeless trade places, that is always a surprise to me. Friday offered many opportunities to contemplate the precariousness of our lives. I went to the wake for one of our home health aids mother.  I was thinking it would be interesting and insightful to see the usual montage of family photographs. It never occured to me her actual body would be there. I must admit there was a moments pause.  Earlier, I got  a call from my colleague sharing that during a telephone intake to set up hospice services for a gentleman, the man shot himself. Pause. Later, in the evening, I was reading a blog I follow  and prayers were being requested for a woman and her family, who, two weeks away from delivering her baby had discovered her baby had died.  In the midst of reading this, my friend called to tell me a nurse who works for her had been killed in a car accident that afternoon. I was moved to tears by the suddeness of all that had befallen these folks.  As a parent, I have an enriched sense of mortality and I gotta say, I don't much like it. But it is this heightened sense of lifelessness that encourages me to live.  So don't just go through the motions.  Decide what are you going to do with your one wild and precious life?