Trusting that even the longest, hardest endings lead to brand new mornings.

Sharing the beautiful words and artwork from Morgan Harper Nichols.

"You will grow how you were meant to. One morning you will wake up and realize that even though so many things aren’t the same anymore, there is still more in store. Because knowing 'there is more in store' doesn’t mean believing that everything will be easy, it means trusting that even the longest, hardest endings lead to brand new mornings.

In this life you will have moments that leave you speechless. You will look to the one you love and wonder, how on earth did you get to live this life. You will also have nights that leave you restless where you are left to ask, what will it look like to survive. And you will also have a billion moments in between. You will weave in and out of beginnings and endings and somehow, through it all, you will end up growing in the way you were meant to. You will be tender and you will be strong and you will be glad you lived to see beautiful things flourish, even though they took so long. You will heal along the journey. You will find: you were always learning. Strength was rising up within you. You bloomed how you were meant to. MHN"

EXPLORING GRIEF AND LOSS LITERACY: SUPPORTING AND EMPOWERING SCHOOL COMMUNITIES

Am thrilled to be offering a full-day of training on Feb. 1st for the Halton District School Board on “EXPLORING GRIEF AND LOSS LITERACY: SUPPORTING AND EMPOWERING SCHOOL COMMUNITIES”

Will be honoured to be present with so many professionals as we spend the day exploring: 

- Grief and Loss Literacy (related to dying, death and non-death losses)

- Stigma Related to Illness, Dying, Grief

- The Dialogue of Loss

- Support Across School Communities

- Promoting Capacity & Engagement

- Opportunities for Self-Care

Looking forward to sharing some brilliant resources!

Calling for a Palliative Care Culture

Palliative Care is the future of medicine "It has social and political dimensions that spring from its grounding in a commitment to relieve total pain, which includes spiritual pain."

Source: Calling for a Palliative Care Culture

Unfinished Business in Families of Terminally Ill with Cancer Patients

" Families with unfinished business had significantly higher depression and grief scores after bereavement compared with those without."

Source: Unfinished Business in Families of Terminally Ill with Cancer Patients

10 Things My Chronic Illness Taught My Children

"All three of us work to maintain balance — knowing when we need to flex and when we need to release, when to put pain first and when to let it fade into the moment."

Source: 10 Things My Chronic Illness Taught My Children

Practising compassion in an uncompassionate health system. Hearts in Healthcare

"Yet, amidst the storm, some remarkable health professionals create a circle of calm. They go about their work in an unhurried way, finding time to greet their patients, put them at ease, listening deeply and offering kindness and compassion. They don’t neglect their clinical tasks, indeed they seem to get the work done with quiet efficiency. These inspiring workers go home with satisfaction and joy in their hearts. How is that possible?"

Source: Hearts in Healthcare Practising compassion in an uncompassionate health system 

What can Palliative Care Do?

"When you are facing a serious illness, you need relief from symptoms. You need to better understand your condition and choices for care. You need to improve your ability to tolerate medical treatments. And, you and your family need to be able to carry on with everyday life. This is what palliative care can do." #SeriousIllness #PalliativeCare  

For more information visit Get Palliative Care

Rappelling Together, Downward and Inward #Compassion @ParkerJPalmer @onbeing

“When I came home and went back to work, I looked around and said to myself, ‘If only we could see the 'inward rappel' so many of us are making right now — the daunting challenges so many folks wake up to each morning — we’d have more compassion and offer each other more support. If our inner struggles were more visible, more compassion would flow.’

I know there are situations where it's dangerous to be transparent about your fears — though I also know there are ways to create safe space to get the support we all need. But whatever our situation, all of us can exercise an empathetic imagination about the ‘inward rappels’ others are making, just as the poet Miller Williams urges us to do:

Compassion

Have compassion for everyone you meet

even if they don't want it. What seems like conceit,

bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign

of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen.

You do not know what wars are going on

down there where the spirit meets the bone.”

@BreneBrown The Power of #Vulnerability: #Courage, #Compassion and #Connection

"Feel the story of who you are with your whole heart...

Courage to be imperfect...

Compassion to be kind to themselves first and then to others. We can't practice compassion with others if we can't treat ourselves kindly...

Connection - this was the hard part - as a result of authenticity they were willing to let go of who they thought they should be in order to be who they were... fully embraced vulnerability they believed that what made them vulnerable made them beautiful...

to do something where there are no guarantees..."

The Geography Of #Sorrow. Francis Weller On #Navigating Our #Losses

"In his book Weller invites us to view grief as a visitor to be welcomed, not shunned. He reminds us that, in addition to feeling pain over the loss of loved ones, we harbor sorrows stemming from the state of the world, the cultural maladies we inherit, and the misunderstood parts of ourselves. He says grief comes in many forms, and when it is not expressed, it tends to harden the once-vibrant parts of us".

The Difference Between Empathy and Compassion Is Everything.

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"Empathy is a gateway to compassion. It’s understanding how someone feels, and trying to imagine how that might feel for you — it’s a mode of relating. Compassion takes it further. It’s feeling what that person is feeling, holding it, accepting it, and taking some kind of action".