As a spiritual counselor for hospice patients, I never know what I will encounter when entering a new patient’s room. In the case of Jane, as she began talking, I immediately asked permission to take some notes, (something I had never done prior) and quickly grabbed a pen from my bag.
Though she could not even open her eyes, she spoke in haiku as if I had come for the purpose of receiving a teaching. These are the words as she spoke them, “As the Cancer grows, the fear gets less, because my love grows. Love of everything: birds, water, children, light. Just take a walk outside, in the fall, you’ll see. Life in the moment is sublime, this is the point we miss.”
Being with the dying is a rare opportunity. It paradoxically offers the invitation to truly live – and to live rightly; to fully embrace the presence of heart and mind to love everything: the birds, water, children and light. And, simultaneously to let go of what stands in the way of our being present for life - to let go of what keeps us small and fearful. For me some of these include short-sightedness, judgment, fatigue, the “not good enough” story, or “don’t have time.”
Jane passed away three days after I received this teaching from her. Near death, not fully alert and releasing her grasp on all she loved in the world, she uttered an arresting invitation - one that life is continually offering each of us: to pass through the flames of fear, doubt, resignation into the rising phoenix of awareness and unbounded love. Steven Levine puts it in this question: “How soon will we accept this opportunity to be fully alive before we die?”
May the coming of spring bring us each to the awareness that “Life in the moment is sublime.”
Let’s not miss the point.
Rev. Katherine Silvan
That is amazing-thank you!
ReplyDeleteYour job continues to amaze me. You have the chance to be present at such a holy moment. Thank you for sharing Jane's teaching. It reminds me of my Grandmothr Jane who passed in September peacefully and with love.
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