One of the multiple lessons I have learned in my career as a geriatric nurse is that, many times, death is not the enemy. The hardest, darkest shifts I have spent are the ones where someone is in the process of dying and cannot seem to get there. I go home after an 8 or 12 hour shift in tears because I know the cycle needs to progress for this person. They need to move to the phase of life which is death but their bodies betray them and they seem to be suspended between life and death, unable to move on. In my mind these times of dying are like the night of Winter Solstice; long, dark, cold, and seemingly never ending. It becomes hard to believe that there will be light (or death) at some point. When I work with that dying person I struggle to maintain comfort for the body that is present and wonder where the spirit is at this time. I, like many others, assume that the body and the spirit hear me when I speak but cannot respond. What does the spirit see now? The beauty of another side of the cycle of life? The light in the darkness? The aurora borealis represents this time to me. A time when the spirit can see, with wisdom, both sides, life and death. A time when there is incredible beauty even in the darkest and longest of nights. The piece pictured here is my interpretation of the aurora borealis. When I purchased the original pattern it was titled Northern Lights and the directions called for it to be worked entirely in white. I chose to create a representation of the aurora borealis that we sometime are lucky enough to see in the night skies of Montana.
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