A picture says it all

Instagram @arielhart.gif

I can’t point to who exactly sent this to me but from the moment I laid eyes on this meme, I felt like someone summed me up in a simple image.  When I was 12, all things Lisa Frank were coveted.  Stickers, Trapper Keepers, folders.  The over the top sugar sweet images were dizzying to look at but instantly incited joy or laughter. 

As an end of life doula, I face death, dying and grief on a regularly.  Each its own heavy topics and ones that require honor, respect, and the ability to find grace in difficult situations.  BUT at the same time, we are living, dealing with the living.  In that beautiful space there is laughter, there is light and there is fun.  Why this image struck me so deeply is because it represented, so perfectly, my balance as a doula and as a person who approaches each day with joy and a little bit of absurdity. 

I love the things I get to see and experience every day.  That doesn’t mean I ignore death or that there aren’t extremely difficult and intense aspects of dying.  It takes work to embrace all of it.  I look for the beauty in dying and at times, the humor.  It’s important to make space for all facets of dying.  This image profoundly represents the work I do as a doula.  Respecting the deep emotional parts of death while also allowing for me include the other parts of my personality…the lighter side.  That duality, I allows me to be the best doula I can be, and I hope to bring some that to the people I support.