Volunteer Newsletter - April 2022
Greetings!
HONORING OUR VOLUNTEERS
National Volunteer Week: April 17-23, 2022

Volunteers are a vital part of the Hospice Care Team and they reflect the faces of caring in our community. Volunteering Is Empathy In Action -- affirming the strong connection between volunteerism and compassion. This profoundly human connection is at the heart of hospice and we are extremely grateful to our volunteers for their desire to help. Your caring and kindhearted concern for those approaching end of life is abundantly appreciated! And, as COVID-19 restrictions continue to ease up, we excitedly look forward to re-engaging more of our volunteers!
YOUTUBE: THE MIDNIGHT GOSPEL -- Discussion on the Acceptance of Death (1:27 minutes)  
 
The Midnight Gospel is an animated series released on Netflix in 2020, that some describe as a weird yet intellectually deep journey. Collaborators Duncan Trussell and Pendleton Ward have juxtaposed fantastic interstellar adventures with audio from a series of podcast interviews. Watch the short YouTube clip from the episode that touched on the theme of death, or read an excerpt below: 

"We're all going to die... If you look at the world, what you see are things appearing and disappearing. And, humans are a part of the whole of that. And humans appear and disappear off the face of the earth. It just happens. Our egos personalize it and we consider ourselves special cases, but we're really not. We are part of the whole and everything in the whole transforms all the time."
ARTICLE: DISRUPTING THE FUNERAL: 7 INNOVATIONS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

Unless Funeral Director is your career choice, it isn’t an area where anyone wants to gain expertise, says writer Tre Miller Rodriguez. Yet like many others, her skillset includes funeral planning and she claims that by the time she planned her 40-year old husband’s service, she had many experiences in creating worthy send-offs. She adds: "while the innovations below will never put the “fun” into “funeral” — um, nothing will — they can help us personalize the last party we’ll ever throw for our loved one (or ourselves)... And, should you find yourself living through another worst week of your life, these resources are here to help you do your best." Have fun perusing these 7 unique opportunities!
YOUTUBE: MINDFULNESS - FULL CATASTROPHE LIVING
With Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD (2:40 minutes)

Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn is internationally known for his work as a scientist, writer, and meditation teacher engaged in bringing mindfulness into the the mainstream of medicine and society. Jon explains that another way to speak of mindfulness is "heartfulness". Here are his simple yet profound messages about the value of cultivating mindfulness.
Jon is also the author of two best-selling books: Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness, and Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life.
POEM: DUST IF YOU MUST
By Rose Milligan

Dust if you must, but wouldn’t it be better
To paint a picture, or write a letter,
Bake a cake, or plant a seed;
Ponder the difference between want and need?

Dust if you must, but there’s not much time,
With rivers to swim, and mountains to climb;
Music to hear, and books to read;
Friends to cherish, and life to lead.

Dust if you must, but the world’s out there
With the sun in your eyes, and the wind in your hair;
A flutter of snow, a shower of rain,
This day will not come around again.

Dust if you must, but bear in mind,
Old age will come and it’s not kind.
And when you go (and go you must)
You, yourself, will make more dust.

Mahalo Vicki Requilman for sharing this poem for the Newsletter.
STUDY BETWEEN SMELL AND MORTALITY
A Michigan State University study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine journal (2019) suggests that older adults with poor sense of smell may see an almost 50% increase in their risk of dying within 10 years – surprisingly in healthier individuals. “Poor sense of smell becomes more common as people age, and there’s a link to a higher risk for death,” said Honglei Chen, an epidemiologist who’s focused his research on this sensory deficit in older adults. “Our study is the first to look at the potential reasons why it predicts a higher mortality." Read more here…
GOOD QUOTES: DEATH OF THE AGED
By Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899)
From a letter of condolence written to a friend on the death of his mother.

"After all, there is something tenderly appropriate in the serene death of the old... when the duties of life have all been nobly done; when the sun touches the horizon; when the purple twilight falls upon the past, the present, and the future; when memory, with dim eyes, can scarcely spell the blurred and faded records of the vanished days—then, surrounded by kindred and by friends, death comes like a strain of music. The day has been long, the road weary, and the traveler gladly stops at the welcome inn."
MAHALO to those volunteers who attended our second
COVID-19 Safety Precautions Training!
This expands our reach of qualified volunteers
able to meet the needs of our home-based patients/families.
CONTACT: Rayne Regush, Volunteer Coordinator
Main 808-245-7277 | Direct 808-977-8501 | www.kauaihospice.org
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