Janie Brown

i feel like right now - with all the sickness and hardship in the world - might just be exactly the right time for me to read this. even without specifically dealing with the issues that those dying in this book were dealing with, it brings useful information in a time of trauma and pain.

most of these essays weren't what i'd consider "radical" or maybe even too profound, but there is a good deal of wisdom here. and lots of compassion and understanding, thoughtfulness and genuine caring. it was a good thing to read right now. the stories are moving, of course, but also hold insight of ways of moving through grief and end of life.

her voice is a soothing one for the audio, and it fits the subject well. i can see how good she must be at her calling, and hope i remember the existence of her callanish society if i ever need it.… (plus d'informations)

I read far enough to get a sense of the book, I think. Brown, a clinical nurse with a background in psychology, is interested in the emotional and spiritual work that people do when they or their loved ones are dying. Some years ago, she and two friends formed Callanish, a charitable organization that allows families facing cancer to have week-long retreats to untangle relational knots and sometimes resolve or work to accept unfinished business. Brown notes that even though a patient’s body is failing, he or she still has abundant capacity to give and receive love.

I can’t argue with any of this, and I can imagine she provides a very helpful service to people. The book has a very British-Columbia feel to it—that is, it’s pretty “new age”. (BC is Canada’s California.) This probably wouldn’t have bothered me when I was younger, but I found my current self recoiling a bit. For ten summers, Brown studied under Dolores Krieger, the originator of Therapeutic Touch, a form of intuitive “energy medicine” where the practitioner doesn’t touch the receiver, so much hold her hands above the patient and fluff the air about him. (A younger, less skeptical me once took a weekend course in it, so I know a little. However, I am not overly amenable to the modality now, though family members said they felt calmed and comforted by it when I practised on them years ago.) Reading about Brown’s singing to and playing ukulele for a dying friend also felt a bit . . . strange and not in a good way. (Not crazy about the hippie-ish sound of that instrument.) I felt that it was somehow wrong for Brown to be providing this personal information to me, a total stranger.

Some might find this a comforting book. I just felt an uncomfortable sense of its invading the privacy of dying people (though Brown makes clear she changed identifying details). As far as I got, the book just wasn’t speaking to me. The author apparently presents a range of patients’ stories about negotiating the final days and final journey. I’m afraid I didn’t get far enough to see if there was much variation in these narratives.

For me, a miss. Therefore, a rating of two.… (plus d'informations)