A Calling

I have just completed the first training session at Hudson Valley Hospice. This hospice serves the dying in Ulster and Dutchess counties in New York. They will be the first hospice in the area to have an end of life doula program. The class had 42 people in it, making it the largest class we have ever taught at a hospice. But it wasn’t the size of the class that impressed me the most—it was the dedication and enthusiasm of the people who took the class.

In an initial exercise we did, I had each table of five or six people find the 10 things they have in common that brought them to the training. Over and over again I heard the representative who spoke on behalf of their table talk about feeling a “calling” to work with the dying. This is a theme I hear whenever we train doulas. I am amazed and inspired by people who express the great desire to serve dying people and their willingness to talk openly about death and dying—even their own. This group of 42 people will be wonderful doulas.

Being inspired seems to have been the nature of this past month for me as I trained these volunteers, taught a large, wonderful group of over 30 people at a public INELDA training in Santa Barbara, and worked with a group of prisoners in the California Men’s Colony prison. You can read more about my experience teaching in the prison by reading the March issue of the INELDA newsletter. It was a very inspiring two days for me and I hope it is the beginning of a great deal more work in prisons across the country.