Begin again

2nd CPE unit commences in January.  I confess to missing this work - this despite being up to my eyeballs in finding my way in a new job.  But the lesson of that new job, of the year's challenges to my health, family, and sanity - is that everything is chaplaincy.  That is, everything comes down to the single instances of presence and connection.  Connection with others.  Connection with that which lies quiet beneath the "self".   Each moment is complete in itself.  Though looking back on the year, I see the habit of trying to see them as a continuous whole - stringing each together - as bright as dew drops on the thin strands of Indra's net - and a construct as impermanent.  And I note - the drops are many.  It was a good year.

Wrapping up notes from 2012

Here are some notes on a memorable set of recent articles and books on EOL issues - scattered across papers and apps and devices and oy - what a 1st world 21st century problem

• Joe Klein's TIME ">video on his piece in the NYT in June - The Long Goodbye.  I liked his statement about candor.  The video link appeared at the bottom of a TIME magazine piece with Five Tips on EOL care that seemed a helpful summary of what I've been reading of late.  What's not explicitly stated is the advice to ask for a consultation with the palliative care team.  Oh, but wait, it seems such teams re not in every hospital.  That was an eye opener to me when I interviewed at a local hospital.  Yikes!
• My LibraryThing notes in Never Say Die by Susan Jacoby:  Really good read.  Reflects fully my experience as a chaplain where patients struggle to reconcile their experience with the frankly offensive "boosterism" of the culture.  Busy blaming themselves for aging, or feeling guilty because they can't see the bright side of suffering, all distract from an ability to approach what are dwindling opportunities for integration and peace.  I think I'll own that anger as Jacoby suggests and see if I can do something with it!
• Excellent Hasting Center post on language at end-of-life.  I especially liked calling out the consumer-ification:  "The second is that the reframe prompts a shift away from a rhetoric of “choices” to one of making decisions, some of them hard. It may seem counterintuitive, but the current trope – patients and families are making choices – promotes the illusion that there is some “right” choice out there and that if they only knew or studied enough, they would make it. It’s a consumerist logic, and it translates easily into thinking that the patient’s situation can be fixed by having plenty of the “right stuff’’ – more tests and procedures."    Read more:http://www.thehastingscenter.org/Bioethicsforum/Post.aspx?id=5109&blogid=140#ixzz2GfAn6leJ
• NYT on older couples facing dementia  http://nyti.ms/IEexYs
• Quotes from The End of Faith:  "The rules of civil discourse demand that reason wear a veil whenever she goes out in public.".... "Theology is now little more that a branch of ignorance, ignorance with wings."..."What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. - Christopher Hitchins"
• Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. - Thich Nhat Hanh, The Nobility of Suffering
• Came across a quote from someone very wise at SJR:  "When you deal with grief all the others (griefs) that are unresolved come forward for attention as well."  This has proven true over and over again.
• Poured through some notes I took on becoming a board certified chaplain.  In truth, it seems ever more unlikely.  But I will do the work as a volunteer nonetheless.  I appreciate the training and despair of the hoops and hurdles.