I am starting with the ending. My thoughts today are related to my work, and to one of my passions; to educate folks about death. We know so little about how to prepare for death and yet we should know so much. We all get a diagnosis of death the minute we take our first breath. There are, from that moment on, no promises. There are plenty of expectations about a long, healthy, fulfilling life, so few of us want to think about a death.
But think about it, if there had been no preparation, no planning, no celebrating about the anticipation of life we would have just plopped into our parents world. Most times women know they are pregnant by the time the baby is ready to exit the womb and enter our world.
Mothers usually get lots of signals that a birth is coming. Symptoms of childbirth come along as a natural steps to not only Her body changes, her mood swings help point to the direction that ‘something’s up’… her extended stomach indicate either a huge shift in eating habits with the diet being mostly Carbs and hot fudge sundaes, or something wonderful is happening, something almost mystical is going on inside the pregnant woman's body. Around nine months after inception the baby arrives, often with lots of preparation.
When we are talking about a dignosis of a life -limiting illness we usually have months prior to death. We can use that time to prepare, or we can avoid the topic. What would happen if a baby just showed up in the living room one day. That's what happens in some folks life when they are suddenly given the diagnosis that life is ending...sooner than later.
Our job is to talk about death early so there are as few surprises as possible.
