Our end of life colleague Linda Bryce shares gracious wisdom in a guest blog today. According to her website thecouragetocare.com, Linda’s credentials include “a career as an attorney and advocate for the elderly and the marginalized and presentations and workshops from then on. Her earlier book, articles, an M.A. in Jewish-Christian Studies and then ordination, enabled her to explore death and dying in her studies and in the University courses she taught. In recent years, her direct work at bedside led her to acquire a professional certificate as an end-of-life doula. ” Watch our podcast page for Linda’s upcoming interview with Jerry and Helen onThe Heart of Hospice podcast.
We’re honored to feature Linda’s writing here. Her words remind us that despite the disconnections and separations life brings, we’re never truly gone from each other.
Linda Bryce, author of The Courage To Care: Being Fully Present with the Dying coming out April 14 (thecouragetocare.com)
Arms of Love
by Linda Bryce ©2021
A friend emailed to say he turned an old chicken coop into a greenhouse and is enjoying puttering around in there. Kale seeds have sprouted and the daffodil bulbs he planted as an act of hope are ready to blossom.
Me, I’d rather be singing. But I do talk to my plants—and am surprised that I have live plants in the house. How did that happen? I never wanted them; too much to care for what with four children and working.
But I couldn’t turn away from an avocado plant. My second oldest daughter started it from a pit when she lived in Boston maybe six years ago. Then it lived on her dad’s outside deck. When he died, the plant had two leaves and a stick of a stalk, perhaps 12 inches tall.
That plant wouldn’t permit me to leave it behind; it called to me. And so it made the six-hour journey to my new living situation. It is now over six feet tall, and its two outstretched horizontal branches curve like arms.
Whenever I look upon it, I feel it sending love and holding me in its embrace. And reminding me of our family–wherever they are—in the here and hereafter.
Follow Linda at www.thecouragetocare.com, on LinkedIn, FB and Instagram. Her latest book, The Courage to Care: Being Fully Present with the Dying, comes out April 14.