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Nov. 18th, 2004 01:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jadegirlOh, wow. Our winter gifts from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
firinel and marnanel arrived yesterday, and they're *gorgeous*! A set of cards for me, with dragonflies - the wings are made of iridescent ribbon. A set of cards for Sir, parchment, aged/burned around the edges, and his monogram in black and red calligraphy - incredibly handsome and elegant. (He yelped when he saw them:)) Also for me - a pair of earrings I just can't get over, so lovely and delicate. They're seeds, I think, when I was little we called them 'helicopters', but somehow they're clear/blue-green, just like a fairy or dragonfly wing, with tiny tassels of beads hanging down them.(ETA: Fin just told me they're actual dragonfly wings, naturally found, and polyurathaned for strength. Oh, wow. That's just amazing) Thank you so very much!
I've been thinking about a lot of things I want to write about, but I've been very busy, and scattered. Today's a grey, dreary day, so my knee's acting up, but even that isn't so bad, as it's the first time in a while.
My mother's a retired (ha!) geriatric home health aide, recently a neighbor of theirs, with whom my mother is quite friendly took in her own elderly mother, who is dying of cancer. My mother's now taking care of her while her friend is at work, and listening to her describe what she's doing, it came to me that this kind of work is a sacred act. Don't get me wrong - *everything* is a sacred act when approached with a certain perspective, but there's just something about this...The woman is just marking time now, on hospice care, given as much morphine as she wants, since she's so near death anyway. My mother is making her feel as good as is in her power to, working as hard as she can to allow the woman to die with grace, with some measure of dignity. Laying down a smooth path for her exit from the world, essentially. There's something so powerful in that, touched with the Divine. I'm proud that that is her chosen work.
firinel and marnanel arrived yesterday, and they're *gorgeous*! A set of cards for me, with dragonflies - the wings are made of iridescent ribbon. A set of cards for Sir, parchment, aged/burned around the edges, and his monogram in black and red calligraphy - incredibly handsome and elegant. (He yelped when he saw them:)) Also for me - a pair of earrings I just can't get over, so lovely and delicate. They're seeds, I think, when I was little we called them 'helicopters', but somehow they're clear/blue-green, just like a fairy or dragonfly wing, with tiny tassels of beads hanging down them.(ETA: Fin just told me they're actual dragonfly wings, naturally found, and polyurathaned for strength. Oh, wow. That's just amazing) Thank you so very much!I've been thinking about a lot of things I want to write about, but I've been very busy, and scattered. Today's a grey, dreary day, so my knee's acting up, but even that isn't so bad, as it's the first time in a while.
My mother's a retired (ha!) geriatric home health aide, recently a neighbor of theirs, with whom my mother is quite friendly took in her own elderly mother, who is dying of cancer. My mother's now taking care of her while her friend is at work, and listening to her describe what she's doing, it came to me that this kind of work is a sacred act. Don't get me wrong - *everything* is a sacred act when approached with a certain perspective, but there's just something about this...The woman is just marking time now, on hospice care, given as much morphine as she wants, since she's so near death anyway. My mother is making her feel as good as is in her power to, working as hard as she can to allow the woman to die with grace, with some measure of dignity. Laying down a smooth path for her exit from the world, essentially. There's something so powerful in that, touched with the Divine. I'm proud that that is her chosen work.
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Date: 2004-11-18 10:48 am (UTC)Your mother is being like a midwife, only the other way around, then?
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Date: 2004-11-18 10:56 am (UTC)Your mother is being like a midwife, only the other way around, then?
*Exactly* so. I wonder if there's a term for such a thing?
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Date: 2004-11-18 10:59 am (UTC)I wonder if there's a term for such a thing?
It's a little like a psychopomp, I suppose, except they're usually said to be supernatural beings.
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Date: 2004-11-18 11:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-18 08:42 pm (UTC)Often they are called "hospice nurses". :) I don't know what you'd call them for laymen.
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Date: 2004-11-18 12:23 pm (UTC)I'm glad you like everything!
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Date: 2004-11-18 12:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-19 12:21 pm (UTC)