Embracing Our Mortality

Embracing Our Mortality

Author: Lawrence Schneiderman

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2008-03-03

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 0199713154

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While surveys show that most of us would prefer to die at home, 80% of us will die in a health care facility, many hooked up to machines and faced with tough decisions. When you, a family member, or a friend are in this situation, what should you do next? In Embracing Our Mortality, Dr. Lawrence J. Schneiderman, a physician who is our leading expert on medical ethics at the end of life, urges all of us, including health care professionals caring for people at the end of life, to face these decisions with sensitivity and realism informed by both the latest medical evidence as well as the oldest humanistic visions. Dr. Schneiderman vividly demonstrates the wisdom of this approach by interweaving true stories of his patients, current empirical research in care at the end of life, displays of the power of empathy and imagination as embodied in the work of writers like Tolstoy and Chekov, and examples of how the distortion of medical research by media, and its misunderstanding even by health care professionals, cloud the ability to think, feel, and decide clearly about mortal concerns. He ends by addressing the question implicit in all of this which is how to achieve a just and universal health care. Dr. Schneiderman proves a refreshingly honest, astringent, and life-affirming guide to thinking about the choices that we or people we love will face when we dienot if, as the technological imperatives of modern medicine can suggestand to making decisions at the end of life that respect all that has preceded it.


The End of the Christian Life

The End of the Christian Life

Author: J. Todd Billings

Publisher: Brazos Press

Published: 2020-09-15

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1493427547

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We're all going to die. Yet in our medically advanced, technological age, many of us see death as a distant reality--something that happens only at the end of a long life or to other people. In The End of the Christian Life, Todd Billings urges Christians to resist that view. Instead, he calls us to embrace our mortality in our daily life and faith. This is the journey of genuine discipleship, Billings says: following the crucified and resurrected Lord in a world of distraction and false hopes. Drawing on his experience as a professor and father living with incurable cancer, Billings offers a personal yet deeply theological account of the gospel's expansive hope for small, mortal creatures. Artfully weaving rich theology with powerful narrative, Billings writes for church leaders and laypeople alike. Whether we are young or old, reeling from loss or clinging to our own prosperity, this book challenges us to walk a strange but wondrous path: in the midst of joy and lament, to receive mortal limits as a gift, an opportunity to give ourselves over to the Lord of life.


Accepting Death, Embracing Life

Accepting Death, Embracing Life

Author: Patricia Gulino Lansky

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2015-11-25

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 9781517722173

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Accepting Death, Embracing Life: How Death Teaches Us to Live, is a spiritual and inspirational journey about overcoming the personal grief and hardships of living with the dying and death of loved ones. Patricia Gulino Lansky, gives you practical tools to use as you learn to cope with the loss of loved ones and heal your own grief. Only when you accept the eventuality of death can you truly appreciate and embrace life and all it has to offer. Lansky has over forty years of experience as a licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist in private practice, and is an ordained minister currently serving a spiritual community in Virginia. Whether you believe in a higher power or not, Accepting Death, Embracing Life: How Death Teaches Us to Live, is for you. It will interest anyone who has or will assist a loved one in their dying process, as well as anyone who wants to release and heal unresolved emotions of fear, confusion, and grief around death and dying.


Top Five Regrets of the Dying

Top Five Regrets of the Dying

Author: Bronnie Ware

Publisher: Hay House, Inc

Published: 2019-08-13

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1401956009

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Revised edition of the best-selling memoir that has been read by over a million people worldwide with translations in 29 languages. After too many years of unfulfilling work, Bronnie Ware began searching for a job with heart. Despite having no formal qualifications or previous experience in the field, she found herself working in palliative care. During the time she spent tending to those who were dying, Bronnie's life was transformed. Later, she wrote an Internet blog post, outlining the most common regrets that the people she had cared for had expressed. The post gained so much momentum that it was viewed by more than three million readers worldwide in its first year. At the request of many, Bronnie subsequently wrote a book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, to share her story. Bronnie has had a colourful and diverse life. By applying the lessons of those nearing their death to her own life, she developed an understanding that it is possible for everyone, if we make the right choices, to die with peace of mind. In this revised edition of the best-selling memoir that has been read by over a million people worldwide, with translations in 29 languages, Bronnie expresses how significant these regrets are and how we can positively address these issues while we still have the time. The Top Five Regrets of the Dying gives hope for a better world. It is a courageous, life-changing book that will leave you feeling more compassionate and inspired to live the life you are truly here to live.


Rejoicing in Lament

Rejoicing in Lament

Author: J. Todd Billings

Publisher: Brazos Press

Published: 2015-02-10

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 1441222901

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At the age of thirty-nine, Christian theologian Todd Billings was diagnosed with a rare form of incurable cancer. In the wake of that diagnosis, he began grappling with the hard theological questions we face in the midst of crisis: Why me? Why now? Where is God in all of this? This eloquently written book shares Billings's journey, struggle, and reflections on providence, lament, and life in Christ in light of his illness, moving beyond pat answers toward hope in God's promises. Theologically robust yet eminently practical, it engages the open questions, areas of mystery, and times of disorientation in the Christian life. Billings offers concrete examples through autobiography, cultural commentary, and stories from others, showing how our human stories of joy and grief can be incorporated into the larger biblical story of God's saving work in Christ.


Living with the End in Mind

Living with the End in Mind

Author: Erin Tierney Kramp

Publisher: Three Rivers Press (CA)

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780609803813

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This extraordinary book takes a life-affirming look at preparing oneself and one's family for the eventuality of death--no matter what state of health is involved.


Confessions of a Funeral Director

Confessions of a Funeral Director

Author: Caleb Wilde

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2017-09-26

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 0062465260

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“Wise, vulnerable, and surprisingly relatable . . . funny in all the right places and enormously helpful throughout. It will change how you think about death.” —Rachel Held Evans, New York Times–bestselling author of Searching for Sunday We are a people who deeply fear death. While humans are biologically wired to evade death for as long as possible, we have become too adept at hiding from it, vilifying it, and—when it can be avoided no longer—letting the professionals take over. Sixth-generation funeral director Caleb Wilde understands this reticence and fear. He had planned to get as far away from the family business as possible. He wanted to make a difference in the world, and how could he do that if all the people he worked with were . . . dead? Slowly, he discovered that caring for the deceased and their loved ones was making a difference—in other people’s lives to be sure, but it also seemed to be saving his own. A spirituality of death began to emerge as he observed the family who lovingly dressed their deceased father for his burial; the nursing home that honored a woman’s life by standing in procession as her body was taken away; the funeral that united a conflicted community. Through stories like these, told with equal parts humor and poignancy, Wilde’s candid memoir offers an intimate look into the business of death and a new perspective on living and dying. “Open[s] up conversations about life’s ultimate concerns.” —The Washington Post “As a look behind the closed doors of the death industry, as well as a candid exploration of Wilde’s own faith journey, this book is fascinating and compelling.” —National Catholic Reporter “[A] stunner of a debut.” —Rachel Held Evans, author of Inspired


Good Grief: Embracing life at a time of death

Good Grief: Embracing life at a time of death

Author: Catherine Mayer

Publisher: HarperCollins UK

Published: 2020-12-10

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 0008436126

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‘The most life-affirming book ever written about death.’ Sandi Toksvig ‘One of the most powerful and helpful books about grief that you will ever read.’ Anita Anand ‘Grief is more than the price of love. It is love. We must learn not just to live with it, but to make it welcome.’


Our Greatest Gift

Our Greatest Gift

Author: Henri J. M. Nouwen

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 1995-04-14

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 0060663553

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From the author of The Wounded Healer and Letters to Marc About Jesus comes a critically acclaimed and deeply moving look at human mortality that reveals the essential gifts the living and the dying can give to one another.


The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

Author: Margareta Magnusson

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2018-01-02

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 1501173251

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*The basis for the wonderfully funny and moving TV series developed by Amy Poehler and Scout Productions* A charming, practical, and unsentimental approach to putting a home in order while reflecting on the tiny joys that make up a long life. In Sweden there is a kind of decluttering called döstädning, dö meaning “death” and städning meaning “cleaning.” This surprising and invigorating process of clearing out unnecessary belongings can be undertaken at any age or life stage but should be done sooner than later, before others have to do it for you. In The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, artist Margareta Magnusson, with Scandinavian humor and wisdom, instructs readers to embrace minimalism. Her radical and joyous method for putting things in order helps families broach sensitive conversations, and makes the process uplifting rather than overwhelming. Margareta suggests which possessions you can easily get rid of (unworn clothes, unwanted presents, more plates than you’d ever use) and which you might want to keep (photographs, love letters, a few of your children’s art projects). Digging into her late husband’s tool shed, and her own secret drawer of vices, Margareta introduces an element of fun to a potentially daunting task. Along the way readers get a glimpse into her life in Sweden, and also become more comfortable with the idea of letting go.