Amy AgapeAug 20, 20202 minHealthcare Team CrittersIf you have been fortunate enough to live with a pet you consider part of your healthcare team, you know already the gifts that little...
Amy AgapeAug 20, 20203 minUnlikely Teammates?: Healthy Babies and Sick EldersMy son made his first hospice visit when he was eighteen months old. One day, I mentioned to Lois, the elderly woman I was visiting,...
Amy AgapeAug 20, 20204 minLessons From a Bereaved Woman about DyingMy first hospice patient was not a hospice patient. And, as it turns out, I may not have been supporting her as much as she was...
Amy AgapeAug 20, 20203 minThe Flow of Support in a Team Made of RingsMy patient was an elderly man, Hank, who had been living with his son, Steve, for years. They were very close, and Steve was a...
Amy AgapeAug 20, 20203 minYoung, Fit, and Healthy: What Role Do Stereotypes Play on our Healthcare Teams?“I wonder what she feels like in that healthy body?” I remember one of the earliest days after I received my diagnosis. I moved as...
Amy AgapeAug 20, 20203 minCreating Your Healthcare Team“Please don’t mention the word ‘hospice’ to my mother. We don’t want her to know Dad is dying.” I hear this from a son, concerned about...
Amy AgapeJul 31, 20204 minPity is Not Solidarity“I respect you too much to pity you.” I paused when I heard these words, my hiking boot poised mid-air in search of a ledge on which to...
Amy AgapeJul 30, 20205 minFear of Catching Something: A Barrier to Cultivating SolidarityNineteen years ago, I quickly became friends with another young mother. We belonged to the same church, and normally we might not have...
Amy AgapeJul 30, 20205 minThe Role of Radical Listening in Cultivating SolidarityI turned my head as the door to my hospital room opened. In walked a very young intern. He barely looked up from my chart as he said,...
Amy AgapeJul 2, 20205 minChronic Heart Failure: Diagnosing Broken SystemsEach time I sit down to do Passings work -- to write a blog or answer an email, to engage in a spiritual companioning session or to...
Amy AgapeJul 1, 20204 minWho is Missing?: Disparity in End of Life Care“Stand up. Look around at everyone in this room,” he said before pausing to allow us to follow his instructions. The 200 or so...
Amy AgapeJun 30, 20203 minShattered Assumptions, Grief, and Expanding World ViewsThe world is safe. The world is orderly. I am a worthy person. You may have grown up with any or all of the above assumptions. Many of...
Amy AgapeJun 28, 20204 minVulnerable Bodies and the Air We BreatheOn May 25, my family and I moved into a new home in a new town. Changing homes during the Covid 19 pandemic required an immense amount...
Amy AgapeJun 9, 20205 minRacism as Designed DisorderHe called for Mama. His own mother, Larcenia Floyd, had died two years before and was unable to come to him. Even if she were still...
Amy AgapeApr 29, 20202 minClassic Children's Stories about Home and FamilyAs I ponder what “home” means to me, I keep returning to two books my children and I treasure. We read these hundreds of times during...
Amy AgapeApr 29, 20202 minWhere I'm From: Poetry to Read and to Create“I am from clothespins, From Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride” The first time I read these lines, I immediately began to feel them in my...
Amy AgapeApr 29, 20204 minHome as a Feeling of Peace: Interview with Saul EbemaSaul Ebema lost his parents and family home to unimaginable violence when he was just a boy. He then lived in a refugee camp, on the...
Amy AgapeApr 29, 20206 minCan We Die "At Home" -- Even in the Hospital Without Family?On my way out of town for the week, I visit Susie in her home. She is actively dying, so I know that this will likely be the last time I...
Amy AgapeFeb 29, 20205 minPractices of Surrender: A True Treasure during Transitions I don’t know how to do this. I repeated this phrase over and over again as I lay in my hospital bed. Recently diagnosed with a rare...
Amy AgapeFeb 28, 20205 minEmbodied Care I spent the better part of three decades not living in my body. For thirty years, my physical form served mostly as either a container...