My best friends mother is dying (liver cancer).

Although I believe in accepting death as just another part of life, it is easy to hold abstract beliefs and another thing to try to be at peace in a hospital watching someone suffer. So I look for help in focusing my mind. This verse is helpful to me at the moment. Other thoughts, prayers, verses from your own traditions would be very welcome.

Thanks.


Empty the self completely;
Embrace perfect peace.
The world will rise and move;
Watch it return to rest.
All the flourishing things
Will return to their source.

This return is peaceful;
It is the flow of nature,
An eternal decay and renewal.
Accepting this brings enlightenment,
Ignoring this brings misery.

Who accepts nature's flow becomes all-cherishing;
Being all-cherishing he becomes impartial;
Being impartial he becomes magnanimous;
Being magnanimous he becomes natural;
Being natural he becomes one with the Way;
Being one with the Way he becomes immortal:
Though his body will decay, the Way will not.

Lao Tzu

Psalms 23
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in green [1] pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest [2] my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. [3]

THATS WHY I SAY ...NO MATTER THE AGE WE HAVE...NO MATTER HOW MUCH PROBLEMS WE HAVE BETWEEN PARENTS AND US...ALWAYS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF EM ..WHILE WE STILL HAVE EM..CUZ GOD JUST BORROWED EM TO US FOR SOME YEARS

Sorry to hear about your friends mom....

Psalm 116:15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
Blessings of peace & endurance during this time.
T mie

This one kept me going a time or two...


I Am Not Dead

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow;
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain;
I am the gentle autumn's rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft star that shines at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there; I did not die.
--Author Unknown

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate the words and thoughts.

I recall this from "Desperate Housewives" a few episodes back. It's quite interesting and thought provoking.

Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I, and you are you. Whatever we were to each other that we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was,
let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was; there is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner.

All is well.

This is weird tonight. I did not expect to come in and see this. Here is one....

I dedicate this to my dad whom I lost today.

I love you daddy. We will meet on a distant shore.

Kathy; your loving daughter....

Very rarely do I get this quiet. Painful death -- indeed hard to endure watching another suffer. Reach out your hand, hold their's, not in a tight clinging grasp, but with one of reverence and a bit of awe -- how they leave is not who they are. Feel them, remember them, imprint their unique beauty on your heart and mind, for you were lucky enough to have them touch your soul.

(((((Ohhhh-a-Sis)))))

Thank you my friends and sisters.

This is a place I know I can come and someone will always be there for me.

I feel so helpless- I hate seeing someone in pain and I can do nothing.

I can only pray her suffering ends soon.