psc is borderlinephil

Nurse Reveals Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

Anise India Forum by way of kellyoxford:

For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives… When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again.

2. I wish I didn’t work so hard. 

This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence. 

By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle. 

People seem to hold their own murder weapons, don’t they?

I love Indiana Jones movies, so an existence along the yellow dotted lines of Che Guavara’s Motorcycle Diaries has on-demand appeal; you know, as if life is waiting to be discovered. In Hollywood, the film adaptation is more romance than reality, and in real life, my view is it’s too much reality to be practical for most people, although I think there’s much to be said here about keeping things real and simplifying your lifestyle. It’s very Ryan Bingham. What’s In Your Backpack?

Trending in bohemia, some call it gypset, which means one-part gypsy, another jet-set, misses the mark. It seems… it seems to cause the accident of calling attention to your own resources, or requiring someone else’s. No one’s free in this scenario, either.

Two things. I think working hard is important. I don’t believe in staying up all night unless you want to. Spending nights in an office shouldn’t be a job requirement, but hitting your spots is. Both are mutually exclusive. Sometimes, people who want you to work harder just don’t want to do the work themselves. It’s kind of a middle-management myth that’s been created to push responsibility down the hill. As a manager, I think it’s important to make sure people finish the job, and that they have a life outside of that. It’s desperate behavior to be attached to just one thing. No one likes desperate. At work, it’s “dedication,” and at the bar, you can smell it. Think of it this way. If your job doesn’t kill you, loneliness will.

Secondly, I think the Ignatians figured out the missing piece to living free. “To conquer yourself and to regulate one’s life in such a way that no decision is made under the influence of any inordinate attachment.” These are Jesuit values, although you don’t have to be Jesuit, and if you were raised Jesuit, it doesn’t mean these are your values.

Jesuits generally see themselves as agents of change for a better world, by way of dignity through the education, decision-making, and care of yourself and others. Simplicity is important, too. I know that I seem to think and act more clearly when I remove things - things, not people - from the equation. They were onto something. I’m onto something.

Taking better care of ourselves and the people around us is a wonderful resolution. HNY.