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I was born a healer. As a child, I repaired broken-winged birds, stopped the bleeding of friends who fell from trees, revived a nearly drowned fisherman, and sat vigil with the sick and dying. I’ve always been called upon to comfort and repair. Infatuated with archaeology, beguiled by literature, enamored of art, I was “called” to nursing. Drawn to work with under-served communities in rural environments, with a particular passion for protecting women’s health and reproductive rights and serving farm workers & indigenous peoples, I practiced a blend of traditional Western health care and alternative healing techniques taught me by elders and shaman of many cultures. Due to the acute isolation and poverty of my patients, my tasks included helping set bones, suture injuries, deliver babies, intervene in domestic violence and child abuse cases, counsel the mentally ill, and sit with the dying. It was a wonderfully rich and challenging initiation as a healer!
I quickly realized, however, that health care is a class, gender, and political issue. I came to believe that lack of access to equitable and affordable health care is a crime against humanity and thus began a life devoted to the work for social justice and health care reform.
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In the latter part of my nursing career, I devoted myself to hospice care and the “death with dignity” movement. I formed my own company “Friends Till The End” to help “cultural creatives” (intelligent, independent, eclectic souls who don’t fit into conventional categories) with the complicated “tying up of loose ends” that frequently overwhelms a person given an imminent terminal prognosis. I helped my clients with amends making, relationship resolution, spiritual reconnection, and collecting their legacy in photographs, letters, poetry, art, etc. My goal was to make end of life a creative, stimulating, and soul healing opportunity for spiritual evolution. My belief is that it is the ultimate act of human compassion to manage one's life (and death) in line with one's deepest moral compass.
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“Walk around feeling like a leaf. Know you could tumble at any second. Then decide what to do with your time.”
From The Art of Disappearing by Naomi Shihab Nye
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I came to Tucson five years ago to “retire” from nursing and to celebrate my eldership with my beloved new life partner, to begin traveling and exploring new creative opportunities. It has been a tremendously fulfilling challenge for me. Though I no longer have the stamina to handle the intense physical demands of personal patient care and I can no longer be available 24/7 for the needs of others, I still harbor a keen desire to be of service and have found it is impossible to retire from being a sensitive advisor to friends and family who are facing issues related to death and dying.
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Thank goddess, at this crucial moment in my personal cogitations about “right livelihood,” a local shamanic healer, Quynn Elizabeth www.shamanworld.com , convened a “Healing The Healers” circle. With her guidance and through discussions with other peer professionals in the circle, I discovered new ways to continue to exercise my well-seasoned healing skills AND nurture my own sense of wholeness and well-being.
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