Gifts from the grave: lessons learned for living well

Often expected to work institutional miracles although under resourced, most hospice and palliative care nurses excel in meeting consistently intense and demanding clinical and human challenges. They do so by staying focused and being grounded, highly accountable, responsive, and empathetic. With time and experience, they often master the art of advocacy, and through developing a capacity for "organization-with-heart," they navigate very complex institutional, systemic, cultural, and societal waters. Nurses are present to patient and familial wounds; the sights, sounds, smells of chaos and beauty; gladness and grief; intimacy and numbness. Our guest author today distills years of nursing experience into a very few words that can be shared in classrooms, homes, and clinics. It is clear that she not only knows of what she speaks, but, having died many times to that which is not fruitful, she separates the essential from the nonessential and, in so doing, is renewed and full of life. Isn't this an ultimate demonstration of integration and embodiment? Therese Schroeder-Sheker, The Chalice of Repose Project.