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    Lasting Words: A Guide to Finding Meaning Toward the Close of Life
    Lasting Words: A Guide to Finding Meaning Toward the Close of Life
    Lasting Words: A Guide to Finding Meaning Toward the Close of Life
    Ebook117 pages1 hour

    Lasting Words: A Guide to Finding Meaning Toward the Close of Life

    By Claire Willis and Marnie Crawford Samuelson

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    About this ebook

    Faced with the ultimate challenge of life-confronting your death-how would you want to be remembered? Are there stories you want to tell? Experiences you want to relay? Explanations about how you felt and why? Maybe you wish to ensure that future generations know your family lore. Perhaps you seek meaning and purpose and don't know how to access them. It's likely that you seek comfort and strength. But at the same time a deep desire to heal unresolved issues may unsettle you. And reaching for a spiritual connection may be the path you want to find.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGreen Writers Press
    Release dateMar 10, 2014
    ISBN9780989983815
    Lasting Words: A Guide to Finding Meaning Toward the Close of Life

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      Book preview

      Lasting Words - Claire Willis

      LASTING WORDS

      A Guide to Finding Meaning

      Toward the Close of Life

      CLAIRE B. WILLIS, LICSW

      foreword by

      JOAN HALIFAX

      photographs by

      MARNIE CRAWFORD SAMUELSON

      Lasting Words:

      A Guide to Finding Meaning Toward the Close of Life

      © 2013 Claire B. Willis

      www.lastingwordsbook.com

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

      Printed in the United States.

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      Green Writers Press is a Vermont-based publisher whose mission is to spread a message of hope and renewal through the words and images we publish. Throughout we will adhere to our commitment to preserving and protecting the natural resources of the earth. To that end, a percentage of our proceeds will be donated to the environmental activist group, 350.org. We will also give a percentage of our profits from this project directly to Vermont-based environmental organizations. Green Writers Press gratefully acknowledges support from individual donors, friends, and readers to help support the environment and our publishing initiative.

      Giving Voice to Writers Who Will Make the World a Better Place

      Green Writers Press   |   Brattleboro, Vermont

      www.greenwriterspress.com

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

      ISBN: 978-0-9899838-1-5

      COVER & BOOK DESIGN BY CAROLYN KASPER

      PHOTOS © 2013 MARNIE CRAWFORD SAMUELSON www.bostonpicturegroup.com

      FRONT COVER PHOTO © ALISON SHAW www.alisonshaw.com

      Permissions to use the poems reprinted in this book appear on page 125.

      For Alex and Margaret,

      whose words are lasting

      CONTENTS

      Preface by Joan Halifax

      Author’s Note

      Introduction: Your Words Matter

      PART ONE

      FIRST STEPS

      Chapter One Before You Begin

      Chapter Two Relaxation and Meditation

      Chapter Three Getting Started

      PART TWO

      SEVEN STEPS TO LASTING WORDS

      Chapter Four On Your Journey

      Chapter Five On Gratitude

      Chapter Six On Hope

      Chapter Seven On Forgiveness

      Chapter Eight On Wisdom

      Chapter Nine On Prayer

      Chapter Ten On Endings

      Epilogue

      Sources

      Acknowledgements

      PREFACE

      THE INTRODUCTION of this powerful book is Your Words Matter. And so this guide unfolds a path for bringing narrative, language and words to a world that is often met by muteness or distraction.

      In this carefully and beautifully crafted text, you will find a treasure house of word-based guidance through the journey of illness. It is almost always true that sickness surfaces the deep need for meaning in our lives. Our priorities shift as we see the horizon of life that is the threshold of death. The practice of expressing gratitude, love, forgiveness, of the discovery of long held but rarely expressed values, the hidden stories that percolate in the final months of life, and the chance to share all this with wise and compassionate others changes the landscape of dying and opens the door to living more fully, honestly, bravely, and richly.

      Writing is a practice and path, and this guide gives us a tool to bring forth the treasures in the mind and in the heart that have long remained out of sight. Meditation, relaxation, writing practice, working with gratitude, hope, forgiveness, wisdom and endings can be the way signs on the journey that bring us to the close of life.

      Having such a guide as this is immensely valuable to all of us. Whether we use it for ourselves or share it with another, it is a path to a richer life that gives meaning to us and to those around us as our journey takes us to the unknown.

      —JOAN HALIFAX,

           author of Being With Dying

      AUTHOR’S NOTE

      FOR THE last 20 years, I have had the privilege of leading writing groups for people living with cancer and their loved ones. I could not have imagined or anticipated the healing impact that writing could have, both for the writers and for those receiving and reading their words. People living with a life threatening disease often share common questions and concerns: How will I be remembered? What difference has my life made and what difference is it making right now? How do I pass on my values and life lessons to my family and loved ones? How do I share some of the lessons I learned to help reduce the suffering of others? What legacy will survive me? Writing about these intimate concerns offers an opportunity for solace, healing and closure.

      Lasting Words is a collection of reflections, meditations, poetry, quotations and writing exercises that I have used in my group work over the past years. The work of the writing group members at both The Wellness Community and Facing Cancer Together in Newton, Massachusetts is featured throughout the book. I am eternally grateful to those who entrusted me with their presence and who shared their writing with the group. I have included work by group members throughout the book. In some instances, I have excerpted their pieces. At other times, the writing appears in its original form. I have changed writers’ names to respect their privacy.

      This book started out as a graduate program thesis requirement. Roshi Joan Halifax, one of the first readers and one of my teachers, immediately envisioned my thesis as a book, and encouraged me to publish it. I am grateful for her vision. In the initial

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