I had the honour of presenting with one of our graduates, Mary-Kate Pickett, at the Palliative Care Tasmania conference last week.
What a thoughtful, c
ompassionate gathering of people that was! We explored how Mindfulness can be more than just telling someone in suffering to ‘breathe’…thats a bit like this meme we used to guide the reflections. Instead, through the lens of Mary-Kate’s experience of the end of life experience for her and her husband John, we identified the range of formal and informal practices better suited when suffering is intense. Being with the difficult practices, of course, but held and shared in company, not alone. Creating a broad and open awareness through meaning making of the whole of a life: having choice where possible to reflect values and personality that made sense with the way they both knew John to be. And because Mary-Kate and I are both Cold Water Swimmers, we recast this popular Tasmanian activity as a Mindfulness practice of its own! If you havent tried yet, visit the Tassie Cold Water Swimming facebook page and find a group near you!https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10171333173603504&set=gm.1417723453067434&idorvanity=287830646056726
The Ever Given tanker, which was pictured in the meme, got blown off course and wedged across the Sue Canal for 6 days in 2021. It took a fleet of diggers, tug boats and dredgers just over six days to work on freeing it….which finally happened with the tug of the moon and a high tide. It takes a combination of practices, people and circumstances to navigate end of life, and the right Mindfulness practices, at the right time, in the right ways for the individuals, can be an important contribution to staying afloat. 