splendra

I think I have written about this before....My H is Greek and once while visiting his mom I was reading in her Greek to English bible and I looked up the word "suffer" in the concordance I was really baffled by the definition given:

suffer: to allow


This really blew my mind and for months I looked at others suffering with the desire to understand what they maybe allowing. I do volunteer work with hospice so it has given me a great oppertunity to see the suffering of the final days. I have not seen one person who did not struggle and cling to thier life while they work out their lives and struggle with their will to live. Usually they start talking with loved ones who have passed on before them and start refusing water(food is usually the first thing they start rejecting) they do seem to reach a point of surrender and often seem to feel great joy in this.

I believe God is Almighty but our will is onething that God respects in all of us and considers sacred. I belive suffering in all of its forms is about allowing God's will. That suffering ends in death because our will combined with our fears is so strong that in the end of our struggling not even God cannot save our phyiscal life because we are unable to surrender to the miracle of living. If our phyiscal life is one of surrender and letting go I believe death can be more gentle...

One thing I would like to say is if any of you do decide to take your loved one off of life support which is a highly personal decission please do allow the person in question to have water until such time that they reject it themselves.

There are many people dying alone in Nursing Homes there are many reasons they are alone but it seems that the most common reason is that they have outlived their whole family. These people do need comfort and human touch and if anyone is looking for some good volunteer work visit the dying and your local state ran nursing home. It will change how you look at your life and the lives of your loved ones.