Volunteering in hospice has given me a perspective on the relationship between death and life\u2019s value that I didn\u2019t think existed previously. I once heard a story about a tulip and an old rose: The tulip sees the rose wilting and the sight of that makes the feeling of the sunlight on the tulip\u2019s petals feel that much warmer. Working with patients who are at the end of their lives has made me feel like that tulip. I find that I\u2019ve become more patient with friends and family, more open with the people I\u2019m close to, and more welcoming to people I don’t know well since I started volunteering.<\/p>\n
Everyone is aware – at least vaguely – that they\u2019re going to die at some point, but for the most part, it\u2019s just a thought in the back of our minds. We don\u2019t actively seek out situations that make us aware of it. If anything, we as humans tend to try to avoid those situations, lest we be faced with the reminder of our own mortality. However, being in an environment where you\u2019re forced not only to confront this reminder, but also to remain positive, and to make those situations bright, comforting, and positive rather than negative, creates a unique opportunity for us to grow as humans.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure every volunteer can tell a story or two from their patient\u2019s past by heart because of how many times they\u2019ve heard it, and while at times that may seem monotonous, it\u2019s a chance to bask in the sunlight. Sitting down with my patient week to week and hearing the same three stories in what seems, at times, like an endless cycle makes me wonder what I\u2019ll remember when I\u2019m at that stage of my life. What memories will be that important to me that I\u2019ll be able to recall every little detail about those days and emotions? Why will it be those memories? Is it something about the weather that day, the clothes my friends are wearing, the food I\u2019m eating, or something else entirely? How can I make each day feel like those memories to my patient, and what can I do in this moment to get the most out of this interaction to try to make it one of those special memories? It\u2019s not so much about planning every step that you take in life, but more about realizing how your foot feels once it\u2019s on the ground and trying to understand why it feels that way.<\/p>\n
Finally, I don\u2019t believe that death itself diminishes the value of life, but rather that a vague awareness of it can add value to life in the right context. You shouldn\u2019t go through life with death constantly on your mind – that\u2019s morbid to say the least. You also shouldn\u2019t try to go through life without any exposure to death. It is a reality we all face in life, and at times can serve to unite us. Life should be approached one step at a time, and we should do what we can to make the most of each step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Volunteering in hospice has given me a perspective on the relationship between death and life\u2019s value that I didn\u2019t think existed previously. I once heard a story about a tulip and an old rose: The tulip sees the rose wilting and the sight of that makes the feeling of the sunlight on the tulip\u2019s petals … Continue reading “The Implications of Death on Living a Fulfilling life”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"school":[21],"program_year":[30],"class_list":["post-1075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hospice","school-ursinus","program_year-30"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1075"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1108,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075\/revisions\/1108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1075"},{"taxonomy":"school","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/school?post=1075"},{"taxonomy":"program_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_year?post=1075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}