Mindfulness Challenge Day 16 Haiku --Airport Purgatory

pur·ga·to·ry
ˈpərɡəˌtôrē/
noun: a place or state of suffering inhabited by the souls of sinners who are expiating their sins before going to heaven.

A delayed de-icing of our US Airways plane in Boston yesterday, led to missed connections for 120 passengers on our flight...no flights out until the next day, if lucky. Lines upon lines of angry, disgruntled, weary travelers...airport purgatory.

Airport Purgatory

Embracing patience
Back to the airport today
Hoping to get there


Mindfulness Challenge Day 13 Haiku -- Writer's Block

We have all been there...a deadline looming and panic sets in...how to begin, how to make sense, how to conclude...finally one has to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and accept that it will happen and will be "good enough".


 Writer's Block

Deadline approaching
Hard to settle down to write
Internal struggle


Mindfulness Challenge Day 11 Haiku -- Community

Today's haiku was composed while attending a brunch for scholarship donors and scholarship recipients in our town of Concord MA. Wonderful connections were made between the generations, the givers and the receivers; the recognition that we are all both the givers and receivers. This is what makes a community.

Community

Grateful for our town 
Embracing community
Givers, receivers

Mindfulness Challenge Day 8 Haiku -- Yin and Yang

As the thermometer hovers between negative and positive numbers today, we in the northern parts of the United States bundle ourselves as best we can against the bitter cold, as we try and go about our daily business. The yin and yang of temperature -- must we experience bitter cold to appreciate warmth?

Yin and Yang

Icy, biting cold
Bright sunshine belies the temp
So grateful for warmth

Mindfulness Challenge Day 7 Haiku -- Morning Ritual

If we truly observe ourselves mindfully, we are creatures of habit and ritual. For me one of my morning rituals includes the process of making coffee. I have resisted the urge for a Keurig type of coffee maker with its pre-filled pods of specialty coffee, because there is something so familiar and sensual to grind and smell the freshly ground beans each day. A ritual I would miss.

Morning Ritual

Dark, glistening beans
Measuring, grinding, pouring
Beginning the day




"Dying from Cancer is the Best Death" WHAT??? REALLY???



It has taken me several days to write a response to Dr. Richard Smith's post entitled "Dying from Cancer is the Best Death". The reason it took me so long is that I wanted to try to understand where Dr. Smith was coming from instead of viscerally reacting to his piece with incredulous disbelief.  I am not sure that I have fully sorted out my feelings, but I will attempt to add my two cents to the discussion which has exploded in the online space of social media since his piece was published last week.

First, I commend Dr. Smith for putting his ideas in writing, because I suspect he is not alone with his romanticized version of "death by cancer". I have no idea of his personal or professional story, the deaths he has witnessed, the road he has traveled with loved ones, but I can speak to my own experience and the cancers that were not "gentle" to my family members.  I return again and again to Dr. Smith's romanticized belief that once one has been diagnosed with cancer, you will have a period of time when you can revisit your life, repair relationships, travel, and reconnect with those things that gave you meaning, put your financial house in order and somehow when you have completed these tasks to your satisfaction, rest and call it a life. This may be true for some, but many who receive a diagnosis of cancer are not afforded this gentle trajectory.  

What Dr. Smith fails to acknowledge is the suffering that often accompanies a death from cancer. I am not simply speaking of adequate pain management for physical pain, but the existential suffering that often occurs with a death from cancer and other life-limiting illnesses. This cannot be palliated by a good dose of morphine and a shot of whiskey as Dr. Smith suggests.  I have witnessed my dad, an esteemed educator and academic, lose what he loved passionately-- the ability to speak, write,  read, and communicate with others as a malignant brain tumor robbed him, piece by piece,  of that which gave his life meaning. This is suffering.  I have witnessed my 14 year old son, diagnosed with an aggressive bile duct cancer, lose the things that gave his life purpose and meaning-- friends, playing the guitar, athletics, piece by piece as his life contracted, smaller and smaller, until his death.  This is suffering.  

Dr. Smith opines that cancer is the best way to die.  I hope each of us will use Dr. Smith's essay as a rallying cry, a wake-up call, to the fact that perhaps there is no "best way to die" but maybe a "best way to live"... by attending mindfully to those things that give our lives meaning and hope, in the present moment.  It is only then that we can let go of striving for "the best way to die".

Mindfulness Challenge Day 5 Haiku -- Monday Morning

Monday mornings are always difficult for me to get moving in the best of circumstances; throw in a blustery winter day, an early morning office appointment that necessitated leaving the house before sunrise and you get the impetus of today's haiku :-) By the way, it is not too late to join in the #Mindfulness Haiku Challenge...join me!

Monday Morning

Wind loudly blowing
Hard to leave the warmth of home
Step into the day