They say... writing is like exercise. One has to do it every day or most days to be effective. But after a long "holiday" or illness, stretching those muscles again can be quite painful.
After a few brilliant sunny days in Oslo and Stockholm, I'm back to dreary cloudy weather in Basel. When we landed on Sunday, the sun was out and it was warm and I could feel all the positive things and really was looking forward to summer. It seems to have dropped straight back into fall. Today, as my cold and aches and pains don't want to leave me, it hurts to walk it hurts to read it hurts to write.
I'll play my guitar later, that will soothe the beast a bit. Go window shopping. Find those last ingredients for tonight's supper. Maybe book tickets to a movie. Depending on how hubby feels. Which reminds me... we were supposed to touch base over lunch time... oops!
I do tend to take more time and, well, taking care of yourself is not an excuse! I want to read and reflect and rest when my body and my mind hurts like this. I can't think clearly nor do I want to.
Here are my five things I am grateful for today:
1. Peace and freedom to do what ever I want today
2. That I am healthy enough.
3. I am aware of where I am in the world and grateful to be alive
4. my husband
5. I am in control of my life and my emotions and all that I let in
So throw away the blah-ness of the day and let the sunshine in! Happy Weekend everybody!
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Friday, May 10, 2013
Friday, October 19, 2012
Dying and Living Gracefully
I just finished the book, "Seize the Day: How the Dying Teach Us to Live", by Marie de Hennezel, a French nurse working in a palliative care unit in Paris.
It is eerie knowing the people she writes about are already dead, long gone: yet she writes with such compassion and clarity, that these people seem still alive and here. If I was to visit this hospital now, I am sure I would see the memory of these people on the faces of doctors and nurses and other psychiatric staff who still work there. It really isn't about the money: it is about human dignity and doing work that is meaningful and compassionate.
Classical psychology/psychiatry always has this "emotional distance". It keeps one objective and able to withdraw and cope with the sometimes horrible things patients say. What Mrs. de Hennezel is able to achieve with her brand of psychology, based on Jungian principles, is a much more compassionate and physical form of healing and accompaniment. She is wonderfully alive, and her book is a testament to that. Teaching someone to live is no small feat, but in the Western world that is her construct, we can afford to be a little more touchy-feely, she claims. It heals the living, the last rites.
They say, the dead have no religion. But the dying do, and we are all dying, just as soon as we are born. The other books I am reading are also on this similar thread of the true nature of the human and breaking through all the lies and constructs we've been given since we were a child. It's a good theme.
Not sure where to go from here, but that's alright. Reading and writing such "fluffy" stuff is becoming a larger part of my life again, while the "hard" sciences are becoming much smaller and I hope to diminish them completely in the years to come.
It suits me right. I am not daydreaming anymore! From the Facebook page of: Never Give Up on Yourself:
It is eerie knowing the people she writes about are already dead, long gone: yet she writes with such compassion and clarity, that these people seem still alive and here. If I was to visit this hospital now, I am sure I would see the memory of these people on the faces of doctors and nurses and other psychiatric staff who still work there. It really isn't about the money: it is about human dignity and doing work that is meaningful and compassionate.
Classical psychology/psychiatry always has this "emotional distance". It keeps one objective and able to withdraw and cope with the sometimes horrible things patients say. What Mrs. de Hennezel is able to achieve with her brand of psychology, based on Jungian principles, is a much more compassionate and physical form of healing and accompaniment. She is wonderfully alive, and her book is a testament to that. Teaching someone to live is no small feat, but in the Western world that is her construct, we can afford to be a little more touchy-feely, she claims. It heals the living, the last rites.
They say, the dead have no religion. But the dying do, and we are all dying, just as soon as we are born. The other books I am reading are also on this similar thread of the true nature of the human and breaking through all the lies and constructs we've been given since we were a child. It's a good theme.
Not sure where to go from here, but that's alright. Reading and writing such "fluffy" stuff is becoming a larger part of my life again, while the "hard" sciences are becoming much smaller and I hope to diminish them completely in the years to come.
It suits me right. I am not daydreaming anymore! From the Facebook page of: Never Give Up on Yourself:
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