I find my breath
Guilty? or Grateful?
I check for signs of yours
Lucky? or Lingering?
I see, in your tired eyes
-which I wipe with dampened cloth-
Yearning
I feel, in your shaking hand
-which I hold gently in mine-
Restlessness
I hear, in your muted sounds
-which I strain to comprehend-
Love
I sit as Doula
I sit as Human
I sit as Life, bright yet knowing
Witness to thresholds
present and still.
-Francesca Arnoldy, 2018
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Published by Francesca Arnoldy
Francesca Arnoldy is the program director of the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine's End-of-Life Doula certificate program and author of MAP OF MEMORY LANE and CULTIVATING THE DOULA HEART: ESSENTIALS OF COMPASSIONATE CARE. A self-proclaimed “recovering perfectionist,” Francesca regularly tosses herself into thrilling, often terrifying challenges of unknowns like writing, completing tax returns, FSBO, and a number of other random tasks for which she’s entirely untrained. She lives in quaint Hinesburg, VT with her family in a most idyllic “village.”
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