IT’S TIME FOR A SHORT BREAK TO CATCH OUR BREATH… Through the power of imagination, perhaps a ‘Field trip to Hawaii’ can happen in the comfort of your own easy chair. Aloha!

This isn’t easy territory or subject matter. There’s some heavy lifting here, and if you’ve made it this far, I admire your fortitude and commend you for braving the elements.

For most of us, there’s an innate discomfort in thinking about dying, let alone talking about it. What you’re reading, and what I’m asking of you, runs against our conditioning. Not only the general topic, but even more so being asked to adjust your perspective and then to act on it.

Please trust that any discomfort is normal, and that when addressed through gradual conversation, most anxiety will diminish and ideally give way to less fear while allowing for more peace of mind.

The simple, free act of talking with our loved ones and doctors, not only seizes control of our destiny, but of our frame of mind.

Pace yourself… If a post or specific topic is ‘too much,’ feel free to give it a rest. Get up and stretch, walk outside, laugh, shout and even cry if you’re free to… Go visit the snack bar. ‘Whatever you need to do.

Please consider that the emotional investment you’re making here can have a significant positive return, not only for you but for the people who care about you.

These posts and our website (onemillionpledges.com) are designed to be a resource to accompany and support you through the process. You’re welcome to add your voice to this initiative by pledging to have The Conversation.

Why A Pledge? Why Now?

The Pledge is a Call to Action. It’s a simple tool, like a lever, designed to help lift a heavy load… A weight or apprehension so keen, that most of us block it from our daily awareness. And there it slumbers, until stirred by aging or illness or a dawning recognition… A growing recognition that to face our mortal fear of dying will not be the end of us, but to the contrary, offers a pivotal rite of passage.

The purpose of the Pledge is to help us embark and to navigate that passage.

An Insider’s “Secret,”

Beginning The Conversation can immediately ease the tension inherent in thinking about end of life.

This Website’s Mission…

• To provide a broad-based educational initiative
• To inspire you to choose and prepare a healthcare agent and advocate.
• To prompt conversation with your agent and doctors, so that your values and preferences for advanced care can be conveyed, understood, and eventually honored.

… And Purpose:

• Healthcare Literacy: To better understand the systems in which we receive care. Primary Care, Urgent Care, Intensive Care, and End of Life Care. To provide language to discuss end-of-life in terms that are commonly used in contemporary healthcare. Learning the terminology helps navigate the depths and shoals of our current system, which in the best of times can be daunting.
• Personal Responsibility: To understand that we each have the right and responsibility to discuss and determine a level of care that matches our goals, values, and preferences. By embracing this responsibility, ultimately there will be less fear, less suffering, more dignity, and more peace. Please trust me on this.
• Shared decision-making: Our Medical Team expects us to participate in the ongoing process of understanding our condition and working together in “real time” to decide on a care plan that reflects what’s most important to us.

Who’s This For?

• For those of us who recognize our mortality and are gradually coming to terms with it.
• The 70 million “boomers” who will soon be taking care of an aging family member and / or becoming the one needing care.

An Invitation:

Since 1974, and the birth of hospice care in the United States, a dynamic cultural change has been underway in our culture’s approach to end-of-life care. We’ve made significant progress toward establishing an improved standard of care, yet the work is ongoing.

This site’s lofty goal is to encourage the next generation of patients, caregivers, and providers to build upon healthcare’s hard-earned lessons and growth. Together, we can continue to improve how our culture envisions and experiences end of life. Your participation is not only invited, I hope that you’ll come to see that it’s essential.

Your willingness to boldly face this difficult and poignant time of life, for your benefit, and for those who care about you, will allow you to author a closing chapter worthy of this intrepid life.

Next Week:  “I’m Not Ready for Hospice… Am I?”

The Hospice Benefit, which became part of Medicare in 1982, offers every American at least six months (180+ days) of hospice care, fully paid for. For years, the median hospice ‘stay’ has been sixteen to twenty days. Why such a discrepancy? Essentially, it’s hard for most of us to accept that life has run its course. The good news: learning about hospice and what it has to offer can happen right here, and will be continued next week…

Feel free to leave a comment on the “contact” page to let me know what’s on your mind and what you’d like to hear more about. If you’d like to forward this Post to family or friends, please click on one of the blue links below.

Until next week, ‘Safe Journeys –

DSW