-

Georgia Weithe's Blog

Thursday, August 28, 2008

GUIDEPOSTS FOR SITTING VIGIL

Today I would like to offer these guideposts for sitting vigil with someone who is dying. I wish I had been given guidance like this when I learned of my Dad’s illness. I hope this proves to be helpful to those seeking to offer assistance to someone who is dying. Please feel free to print out this list of tips and give it to anyone who needs it. If you have others, feel free to contact me and I will incorporate them into the list; or publish them yourself on this blog. Good luck.


Guideposts for Sitting Vigil


1. Wait patiently as the changes take place, and for your loved one to come to terms with their health condition.

2. Cancel all negative thoughts that may arise. Your resistance becomes theirs and your lack of resistance becomes theirs, as well. Surround them with love and you will bring them peace.

3. Waste no time on sadness. Elevate your emotions to gratitude for the contribution your loved one has made in your life. Let love and gratitude guide him/her out of this world.

4. Do not become overly emotional and subject the dying person to more than they can handle.

5. When accompanying a loved one on this journey, we cannot afford to be afraid. There is a resonance that matches each emotion, and the frequency we maintain and project onto others must be chosen very carefully. Exude the essence of faith and belief that will take the dying person to another vibration: that of inner peace

6. Words will not be needed. Be patient and loving and give comfort with your presence.



Excerpted from Shining Moments: Finding Hope in Facing Death by Georgia Lang Weithe (Reflections Press, 2008).

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

A SECRET

Yes, it’s about Randy Pausch again. What a presence he was; its not easy to forget him and what he showed us about living!

One thing that was startling about him was his smiling face, which beamed out at us in all of his pictures. One wonders how it was possible for him to have such a joyful aspect when living with the knowledge of his impending death. What secret did he know that we do not?

The truth is, we can become every bit as joyful as Randy Pausch. He *chose* his attitude and he was able to play the game of living by his own rules. He could not choose the moment of his death – that was death’s call. But up until his last breath he chose to live life on his own terms.

What attracts us to him is the freedom of choice he displayed. Most of us never knew we had options in the face of death, until we saw the choices he made. He never stopped living until the moment of his dying. He found a way to continue to be alive up until the very end.


So what is the secret? It is this: Each of us can sparkle and shine with the same magic – each and every person has the magic within!

Sunday, August 3, 2008

RANDY PAUSCH AND MY OPTIMISM

Sometimes I wonder why, at this stage of my life, I am so attracted to a topic I have run from all my life. I think its partly because I don’t want to be taken by surprise when its my turn to die. I’m studying for the test, so to speak (some of my most terrifying moments were being unprepared for tests in school). The test of facing one’s own death is a test you cannot cheat on so you better be prepared, is how I look at it. But that's not the only reason I have immersed myself in the subject. I am an incurable optimist. I have found that the way for me to survive life’s hard knocks, is to look for something positive that came out of the pain. It is an approach to living that I seized upon as a child and which has never let me down. I have always wanted to believe it was possible to find a reason to be happy. No matter how much I was hurting, I always searched for a ray of light in the dark – and I always found it (sometimes after the fact)

Looking at Randy Pausch’s face beaming out (in the Last Lecture video) from behind his physical and emotional pain, he reminded me once again, that even in the face of death we can choose to find a ray of light.