Working together

It's not often one comes home to find such a beautiful gift left on the garden table from the village Vicar. Handmade by her own fair hands too. My heart smiled with such warmth and love when I discovered it this afternoon. A colourful blanket, serving as a reminder that rainbows come along after the rain. 

This weekend has been a rather wonderful one, it makes such a difference when the sun is shining too.

Saturday was consumed with helping to build a roof for a friends Woodland Roundhouse. An array of people came to help. Then on Sunday, we had our village fete where once again various people from the community came together. Life is so much easier when we all work together.

It matters not where we come from, the qualifications or skills we may or may not have, but when people decide to come together to work on a common theme, suddenly, all those things we concern ourselves with during everyday life become obsolete. Completing the task in hand in the best possible way is what matters the most. 

Problem solving, team building, Creating, being outside, caring for the community and our countryside are all things that make my heart sing and it's becoming more apparent that those are the things I need to do even more of and so recently I have been exploring other ways where I can serve my community.

There has been one thought that has been on and off for a long time, perhaps even years and that is to become an End of Life Midwife or a Death Doula. Being in hospital where I was close to many very sick people had reminded me again and I jotted it down in my notebook I had the foresight to take with me.

Death has never scared me. Perhaps it is because I have had near death experiences that I am able to relate to it. Indeed, dying is far easier than birthing I seem to recall!

I have also had the privilege of being the only member of the family who could be with my Gran where I witnessed her life slip away before me. It was neither sad nor frightening. Just peaceful. (Grief came afterwards)

Of course, there are many circumstances where death is not nice, it can be unpleasant, violent even. However, I truly believe that if we could be at peace with death as well as life, perhaps death can be a beautiful transition.

Having the privilege of aiding somebody on and holding their hand metaphorically or otherwise until they are ready to move on to their next journey wherever it may be, fills me with love. 

Working together, is about supporting and finding a common theme. Usually in my experience those common themes run deep for most of us. To be loved, to be heard, to be valued and to be part of something - A Community or a sense of Connection.

How we go about these things can vary and sometimes those core values get lost along the way.

We are all so different with individual needs. To guide someone into personal empowerment so that they can make choices as to how they would like to live a life and die a death would be an honour and a privilege.

I am not saying it will be easy and I know that some people I have already spoken are surprised by my decision. But to me, it seems like the most natural path forward. Life and Death are intertwined and we don't have to be afraid to face either of them .

I will sign off with this Music and Video by  James 'Moving on'.