so i am reading the Gawande book,  Being Mortal and reading about establishment of Communities and Hospice and the conversation over the last months with Granddaughter has deepened…her interest Forming about what she wants to DO with her degree when it's hers….we talk about her mother, brother,  her children, me, the world.  What might make a difference.  So that,  and then my own thoughts with Raya showing up yesterday and when we were at Walmart,  to get that Tub of Peanut butter,  we ran into Mike of my friends Mike and Thelma who i know through their Native Plant Nursery that no longer is in operation but we had become friends because there was an easy sense between all of us that included Thelma's parents who she spends Sunday's with or part of and they liked to come here now and then to see what was going on with the Goats.  Her dad, especially and he was a Well of information of " how it's always has been here".  A huge family,  Chavez.  The road he lives on is named after him….Fermin  Chavez…  phonetically,  FairMean,  sortof.  Hadn't seen any of them all winter, but that's kind of how it goes in the cold months but with the Warm,  i'd been thinking of them.  Fermin and Flora.  And Mike told me yesterday that Fermin hadn't been feeling well this winter and they went to the VA Hospital in March and they did some tests and he was Full of cancer.  Cancer that is inoperable.  Mike told me that yesterday,  Hospice came.  To their home,  there along the ditch bank and the Bosque on the road with his name. The old home that only about a year ago got hot water into it. For the first time.  They do things the old way.  I asked him to have Thelma call me last eve to see if her dad might be up for me to come see him.  or not.  Whatever she thought….and she did and said yes,  he would like that.   So i went this morning.  I had opened that Door.  

he is on a bed right there,  inside the front door.  Next to the table,  out a bit from the kitchen sink. Had oxygen…nasal canula….  and i sat next to him on the bed and laid myself as lightly as i could on him,  my arms around him,  hands behind his neck and we just breathed together for a while.  I'd brought him a good luck charm from the gas station.  There is a little basket there of stone animals,  and when i got gas before i went,  i looked through and chose him a bear  but when i got outside i saw that it had one blue eye from a blue chip but the other eye was empty because i guess the blue chip had fallen out but i thought it was OK anyway so i gave it to him.  He said it looks Just Like You.  We smiled.  So i stayed a while talking to everyone but still leaning into him and not too long and said i had to go…had stuff to do.  Goat stuff etc.  But that i'd come back.  He asked When?  Today?  and i said no,  not today,  and he said he might not be here then,  when i got back and i said well,  OK then i would keep looking for him.  That he should keep that one blue eyed bear and it would make it easier for me to find him.  And he said

OK.

and i can't in this moment get a pic to download from picasa.  so i will or will not finish this post this eve…we'll see.  It's Passover.  

NEXT DAY…SUNDAY  but to finish yesterday…try again to post the pics

still no.

Monday afternoon:

still

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in

26 responses to “When you open doors, Things come in”

  1. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    The synchronicity of this day – We’ve been talking about the importance of how we live our lives and how it can affect the way we want to die when our time comes via the book that Julie recommended to you grace, Being Mortal by Dr. Atul Gawande. Today while you were visiting and being with Fermin, one of our New Mexico local PBS stations replayed a program that appeared on Frontline in Feb of this year. The subject of this program was Being Mortal by Dr. Atul Gawande.
    I knew I wanted to see him, watch this program as my local library has a long waiting list for his book. Told in stories of terminally ill patients, including Dr. Gawande’s father, Atul also interviews other physicians with the emphasis not only on patients coming to an understanding of the end of their lives and what is most important to them but especially for physicians coming to this understanding as well. To that end, there is a new specialty in medicine known as the palliative physician, who is able to discuss and help both patients and Drs. with end of life discussions, etc.
    What impressed me about Dr. Atul Gawande was his coming realization and understanding that questions and issues about the quality of life need to be addressed much sooner than experience had dictated. He came to this belief after several difficult communicative experiences with terminal patients that left him feeling inadequate. For so long, physicians have been all about solving complex medical problems, all about competence, finding more time, finding the cure, holding out the belief that one more treatment, might work. It has been hard for some of them to admit that they have done all that they can for the person and that the person is going to die. Asking terminally ill patients questions is important and asking these questions early is very important because “it matters to people how their stories come to a close.”
    Physicians need to come to an understanding that it is not always up to them to lead the way – oftentimes, it is the patient who does so but that is predicated on how one has lived their life. A person is a person first, not just a patient. “Accepting death comes with complex emotions”. Some people can face their mortality, others have a much harder time. Most of all, people’s priorities need to be front and center, even if they themselves have not come to that point. Priorities for the end of life are often based on who the person has been in his life, some accept easier than others. The question of how one lives their life manifests itself in the impending reality of their death.
    Some of the stories profiled in this program echoed the two examples that I spoke of in an earlier comment on your blog. The wife of one of the terminally ill patients had such a moving quote: He was home where he wanted to be, confined to a hospital bed. She said, “as his space narrowed and narrowed to that bed, it grew in terms of the people he was drawing in… but that’s another one of those paradoxes. You know, as your— as your world comes closer and smaller and smaller, it becomes bigger and bigger. And— and he was seeing that.”
    Dr Gawande ends the program by taking his father’s ashes to the river Ganges, per his father’s request, and asking and answering this question: “How is dying ever at all acceptable? How is it ever anything except this awful, terrible thing? And the only way it is is because we as human beings live for something bigger than ourselves…”
    And that something that is bigger than ourselves is the life that we have led that lets someone such as yourself grace, open the door to Fermin’s impending death and walk into his life, visiting, laying beside him, telling him verbally and non-verbally that he matters and that he has been and is important.

    Like

  2. grace Avatar

    Marti…your response here is HUGE and FULL and Huge and Full and
    there is SO MUCH to talk about in it and i am gratefull to you, beyond grateFull for all you so carefully chosen words here….JUST SO MUCH
    just so much
    and how totally magic is was that you found this on the PBS
    so knew in this way how i was experiencing the book…
    magic….serendipity…synchronicity……
    as i laid my self on him today, i thought too of your father. He would have known Fermin as a brother. So i laid my ear and heart too on your father, tho he has been gone awhile. But to me, they are Old Sames. Like we are Old Sames. Like me and Rayna are Old Sames
    i cannot thank you Enough for these words and will stay with them on into tomorrow
    Big and Giant Love

    Like

  3. grace Avatar

    lots of typos in the above, but…eeeee, it’s ok

    Like

  4. Judith in N. CA Avatar
    Judith in N. CA

    the heart doesn’t see typos…only feels the emotions evoked. Marti’s words brought tears..good tears, those that express thankfulness to wise women who share here.

    Like

  5. grace Avatar

    We are here. Aren’t we. We are here. We Live. We learn. We
    talk the story. and read and talk and read. and learn.
    It’s all very Grand

    Like

  6. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    i think about these things all the time it seems, but no one talks about them in all the blogs, and Face book connections, nor do friends. It remains a topic out of the common ground of interaction, even when fleetingly referred to. That recent PBS series was quite good on cancer….thoughtful, informative and helpful. But death and dying, well there’s one group that is pushing for compassionate end of life care, and my Zen group gives long trainings that I can’t afford, so I just go once or twice a week for the open sittings. The poets allude to death, write poems about it, and it’s dealt with in fictions too. But there is no comfortable discussion except here, and I’m grateful for here. Our health care system is myopic and riddled with conflicting laws and regulations, and the whole religious debate thing just muddies the water. Shouldn’t morality be based on compassion and not cost, or politics. Shouldn’t we have come as far at least as those indigenous tribes we call primitive. They deal with death most kindly and pragmatically too. Well. It’s late. Time for a nap. Tomorrow is the ‘resurrection’ day and the Catholics will all be streaming into the pews, so too the other Christians, and the parade will parade from 10AM to 4 and everyone will be showing off. I’m eating eggs for breakfast, and that’s all I know. One day at a time from moment to moment.

    Like

  7. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    I thank you grace for opening doors that allow us to move to discussions of life and death. For me, death is not a difficult subject to speak of and I think it has to do with the fact that I lost my parents so long ago, (I was in my early 30’s, my parents died within 2 yrs of each other) so I have had a lot of time to ask questions, and acquire a modicum of wisdom that I hope helps others as they face life passages.

    Like

  8. .cynthia Avatar
    .cynthia

    i had written grace earlier..that when she first posted the wonderful cloth enso..my head has been full of the old old song circle of friends..a version sung in a woman’s crackling voice..and then patricia added true colors and these two songs have made such a strong backdrop to all the thoughts these discussions have brought up..brought back..
    i had such a long and amazing journey with my parents..i left my job for what was originally a temporary leave of absence..but turned out to be a four year stretch..but i was so very lucky..i am a nurse ..and i was able to keep them home..a huge wish and it was not really of course perfect..and i was back at work for the end of my mom’s life..but still..it brought home so many realities of our world..we were so lucky..we had the gifts of time and love to try to make..well if not sense of it ..at least something that was full of dignity and compassion
    their illnesses were quite different..and they were such different people..that it was an instant lesson in seeing the incredible and surprising ways people meet the end of their lives.. ..in trying to meet needs in a system that does not flex very well or very much..we were lucky to meet good people along the way who made the system easier to cope with..
    and in the end we had hospice in..and that was a gift as well..it made something nearly unbearable easier..not easy..
    it was something so huge..to watch and care not just for the bodies of the dying..but to experience the belief systems of my parents ..to see what brought comfort and what fell away..it seems a million years ago..and it is as present as yesterday…and it has been 17 years…
    and now here i am perched on a snowy hill away from the place where i learned how to set up a system that i felt i could rely on..both the actual system itself and the friends and people i relied on so much..in a place that is so different..which seems/is so much more elemental…and now i am the person inching along and i find myself remembering and revisiting..trying with one part of myself to simply live fully and with intention..and with the other part being practical and trying to figure out where the nets are ..how to make them work when i slip..when we start to fall..
    i have a husband with a certain difficult level of illness..and to be here in this place of beauty gives him so much pleasure..and i can see him strengthen in the quiet..but i also just had my own very first surgery and while not life threatening ..it scared me..i know i have no true control..but all the illusion of control was taken away..and i was torn..and still am between being the patient ..between wanting to be simply cared for..and knowing that i needed to fid those ropes..or at least threads and begin to weave them into something real..
    and so i balance here..becoming stronger very day..plunging into voracious sleeps that are all consuming..trying to live out my system of beliefs..and that is way too formal a way to describe this turmoil inside of me..or the huge solaces of peace that are there fully present as well.. and the reality of the world…and it is here that i come very day..whether i write or not..this place starts my day and offers up exactly what i need and search for..even when i am uncertain of what that is exactly..and i am so grateful…gentle day…cynthia

    Like

  9. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    I sit here and feel such gratitude and love for you Cynthia; for how you have written about this; your experiences with your parents, your husband, and now what you face, the balance. You are a nurse so in some respects, you have knowledge that many of us do not have and yet we are all together in how we move on in this one life of ours. I thank you for the integrity of your words and the lessons that are ongoing from your gift of coming here dear Cynthia.

    Like

  10. patriciaspangler47@gmail.com Avatar

    Grace. Dear dear Grace. imagining you gentle-ing Fermin–warm tears abound
    and to Marti and Cynthia–
    for all of you–for all my sisters here and elsewhere —
    this song
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx_Y3T8BhlM

    Like

  11. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Ah yes, Leonard Cohen’s Sisters of Mercy. Thank you Patricia. My favorite lyric in this song is:
    “If your life is a leaf that the seasons tear off and condemn
    They will bind you with love that is graceful and green as a stem…”

    Like

  12. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    Heartfelt thanks to all of you AMAZING women for remembering and sharing……for this amazingly beautiful journey I feel so blessed to be part of. Thank you…Thank YOU……THANK YOU!!!!!!!

    Like

  13. .cynthia Avatar
    .cynthia

    ..xox..you know what is so funny..child of the sixties..if there was anything i was not going to be it was traditional…i would..chin out..follow my own path….and while i did..through vista..through the time that it was..i still ended up as a nurse and a teacher.(.and still did not feel ‘traditional ” )..it was my path and has served me well…still when i was through with caring for my parents..i was full..but i was depleted …and chose filled my life with small children..an excellent tonic ..in one of the best communities..and then without warning..my husband’s illness changed everything all over again ..the dreams that we actually had started to make real.. were no longer viable….and here we are..new path..finding..ok seeking.. the balance all over again…but for all sadness..and there is sadness.. loving truly loving the way that life comes in..as grace titled this morning..when you open the door.Things come in..isn’t it great to open the door (s) here gentle day…

    Like

  14. .cynthia Avatar
    .cynthia

    and to marti..yes..oh and the very first lines
    oh the sisters of mercy they are not departed or gone
    they were waiting for me when i thought that i just can’t go on
    and they brought me their comfort and then later they brought me this song
    oh i hope you run into them ..you who’ve been traveling so long
    yes you who must leave everything that you cannot control
    it begins with your family, but then it comes round to your soul…
    oh another loved backdrop for this day many thank yous

    Like

  15. Mo Crow Avatar

    such deep love and beauty in your post and all these responses, I sit here with tears in my eyes for the friends who have gone… and yet remembering a beautiful post awhile back about a ragmate’s father in the old folks home fugueing out, dribbling, curled up in the faetal position most of the time, his daughter wondering about his quality of life when he rouses one day, looks her square in the eye and says “It’s a beautiful life”

    Like

  16. .cynthia Avatar
    .cynthia

    it does take the breath away..when my dad was in quite a similar position..his bed in what was once the dining room and we were gathered around him..and out of somewhere..he roused looked straight at my mom ..who had his hand and said..oh i have loved you Mary Ann…and i love you still…and then he was gone ..

    Like

  17. Kristin Avatar
    Kristin

    all so beautiful to read and take in..the post, the comments, the replies and the thread continuing. It was a day in early February when I learned of the passing of a fine elder man from Mexico who came to the reservation and married a local tribal woman back in the 30’s and he has a long, long family line who all are know to me, but him, oh he was pure delight to know and to visit with..As I searched to read his full obit I learned that three more elders from that county who had touched my life also passed during the same week. I began to put away some dollars for gas…I fully knew I must travel to see my elder friends…it has been 4 years….and in three weeks I head out for reconnection, spending 3 days in each town as I bask in the wondrous love of old friendships. We may not know when the time will be yet my taking time to sit with those who are my elders or are younger folks with some challenges is something I must and will do…this year and again, for sure. Honoring all the stories and the small bits of each one’s journey tales are the treasure I will bring back home with me, to wrap around me as I spend my summer growing good, organic food and writing poems as I sit in the shade and listen to birdsong. Having the conversations about life and death are the stuff of the heart of my life. Thank you for information on the book – I will get it from the library tomorrow. And always, thank you for writing and sharing your story – a piece of my life for 10 years that I treasure over and over again. Namaste dear grace

    Like

  18. grace Forrest Avatar

    for me, it’s that thing of something being unspeakable or unspoken.
    I always have a hard time with that. To speak of things is crucial.
    And yes..our systems, our politics, our Ways…but these are all
    made of US too. so to change things, it’s US that must do that.
    Voice to Voice.
    isn’t it odd that the thing that every single one of us has In Common is unspeakable.

    Like

  19. grace Forrest Avatar

    to know we are part of Each Other

    Like

  20. grace Forrest Avatar

    so we are quiet and wait with things and see what they might
    bring us that is totally unexpected and we then
    can carry these as we go along

    Like

  21. grace Forrest Avatar

    Kristin, i am so GLAD you will go on this Journey. Bring Us
    some stories when you return

    Like

  22. Nancy Avatar

    There is everything here that is good! I think could fall for this wise, real sweet young gal too. And, oh Cottonwoods, one of my favorites! Oh and to see your apricot on top of it is perfection! Love this.

    Like

  23. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    We speak. therein lies our power and our comfort.

    Like

  24. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    How touching. How true. How generous each and every one. We are the sisters of mercy – each – in our own way. How glad I am for us. It will be all right.
    Oh the sisters of mercy, they are not departed or gone.
    They were waiting for me when I thought that I just can’t go on.
    And they brought me their comfort and later they brought me this song.
    Oh I hope you run into them, you who’ve been travelling so long.
    Yes you who must leave everything that you cannot control.
    It begins with your family, but soon it comes around to your soul.
    Well I’ve been where you’re hanging, I think I can see how you’re pinned:
    When you’re not feeling holy, your loneliness says that you’ve sinned.
    Well they lay down beside me, I made my confession to them.
    They touched both my eyes and I touched the dew on their hem.
    If your life is a leaf that the seasons tear off and condemn
    They will bind you with love that is graceful and green as a stem.
    When I left they were sleeping, I hope you run into them soon.
    Don’t turn on the lights, you can read their address by the moon.
    And you won’t make me jealous if I hear that they sweetened your night:
    We weren’t lovers like that and besides it would still be all right,
    We weren’t lovers like that and besides it would still be all right.

    Like

  25. Wendy Watson Avatar

    You can’t see but I’m nodding and smiling despite tears in my eyes, and I’m hoping that someone will lay their warm body alongside me if I’m ever in the same place as Fermin.

    Like

  26. grace Avatar

    Wendy…yes. so much, yes. I think of him, he Left yesterday morning, i think of him and what he meant to me. A gentleman of great humor and goodness. always happiness. Gentle soft happiness. I did. I laid myself on him, to him, but really it was as much for me, to know that kind of exchange, which he gave me by
    Receiving me
    it was a very very Fine Fine moment

    Like

Leave a comment