"I've noticed that I've become a much more attentive listener with my partner at home, and with people that I interact with. The more you practice being present and listen, the more it becomes a natural part of how you interact with the world. And that's been really, really important for me. It's been something that I didn't know how important it was to seek, and today I get a chance to seek it and I'm very grateful."
"I came to volunteering when I was laid off from a long career in the tech field and went on a 30-day silent meditation retreat. And something in that retreat told me that I should become a hospice volunteer. One of the things that I was spending a lot of time thinking about was how my mom had passed. She passed 10 years prior on hospice and there was something about that process that really touched me. I felt a calling, and that's what brought me to start looking at how I could volunteer here locally in Napa. And I started to get involved and it's been an amazing experience for me.
When I started volunteering, when I met with my first patient, something about that experience opened up for me. He was a 49-year-old patient, same age as me. He had an external pacemaker, and he had a particular view of the world. He only had a couple weeks to live at most, and it was during last year's super bloom. He just recognized everything that was happening around him and he was present in a way that was just incredible for me to see and brought me so much gratitude. I just learned so much from him.
Usually when I go see a patient, the first thing I do is a little prayer to center myself and know that I'm there to be a witness and to listen and to be present. I remind myself that I just am so grateful that someone would allow me to be in the space with them in such an important time. And there’s a kind of settling that happens; it doesn't happen every time, but you become grounded and present and able to listen to someone else in a way that not everyone gets to do in their daily lives. If we could give that type of presence more often, not just when sitting with someone who's contemplating what it's going to be when they pass, that would be a marvelous thing. So, what inspires me a lot is to be able to bring that more into my own daily life.
My life has changed absolutely. I've noticed that I've become a much more attentive listener with my partner at home, and with people that I interact with. The more you practice being present and listen, the more it becomes a natural part of how you interact with the world. And that's been really, really important for me. It's been something that I didn't know how important it was to seek, and today I get a chance to seek it and I'm very grateful."