All We Can Do– A 3 min. IDG Staff Reflection

Rev EM · All We Can Do - IDG Staff Reflection

ALL WE CAN DO - a 3 minute IDG Staff Reflection

In hospice and palliative care, we walk with our patients as they are… mid -loss. At the EOL, there are a lot of goodbyes.  That’s just he way it is.

We all, as a team, flavored with our different disciplines, to our best to offer comfort, kindness and love. We all approach it differently, but that is the work. To offer comfort, kindness and love into the losses.

But loss is a life long  process. We practice every day in the letting go of control… which we realize we don’t have… or don’t have much.
We - in our own ways- and in small steps - surrender to the Higher and the Mystery… each day. And if we are wise, we let go of what is NOT working… and do more of what is working in our lives… toward our needs for comfort, kindness and love.

We all do this.  It is all we can do because we are up against the early vicissitudes.

All we can do is cultivate, in ourselves and inner patients, a willingness to deepen into the losses and the mysteries that well up through the cracks in our lives… and we all have cracks in our human plans… from time to them.  It’s just the way it is.

Poem by William Stafford:  The Way It Is

There's a thread you follow.
It goes among things that change. But it doesn't change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can't get lost
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time's unfolding.
You don't ever let go of the thread.

Don’t let go of that thread; do more of what is working.
Blessings and thank you.