Imagine living every day with the knowing that as you enter the twilight years of your life you will be cherished and cared for to the bone, by a community that will be there for you and with you until your parting breath.
Imagine knowing that when the time comes when you may be in need of 24/7 support, the nursing home you go to will not just be glitzy on the outside, with ‘cosy’ described on the brochure but rarely felt in the actual home itself. Imagine knowing that what is before you as you are close to parting from this life, is an ending that’s glorious, as you are surrounded by people who are your family through and through regardless of whether they’re a blood relation or not.
Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to.
Pipe dream? Far from it. For the students of The Way of The Livingness the world over, this is how we care for our elders. It goes without saying, it goes without thinking. Care is in the essence of how we live, and in the essence of how we are with those who need our support, be it in illness, a passing problem or in the closing years of our lives.
The Way of The Livingness is re-defining what has been reduced today to a lucrative industry by the private health-care market, which is capitalising on how as a society we treat and regard our elderly and ultimately, ourselves. Care has all but been thrown out the window, jettisoned as the majority in the world today have succumbed to the longing for outer recognition and success. The fact that it’s only from a foundation of true care that we can then enrich all aspects of our lives and be truly successful, has been forgotten. The vacant, abandoned look in the eyes of the elderly who pass by, as they shrink away from life long before they pass over, is an indictment of the lack of quality of life we have allowed to be acceptable.
Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.
We are born in the bundle of love we innately are, and it is our natural right to remain in that love until the end of our days and beyond. Most in the world today live in the absence of remembering this fact, and death and dying are synonymous with the cold feeling of dread; for the vulnerability of the human body has nothing to fall back on and deeply rest in when there is no foundation of true care to hold it.
The Way of The Livingness is turning this sorry state around. To live in the knowing that as we reach our parting years we will be held in the warmth and care we innately deserve gives us the freedom to live every day in the joy we are meant to live in. We go about our lives in the knowing that true care underpins everything, and that it’s in this full embrace of ourselves that we then surround ourselves with love and true family until our dying breath.
By Katerina Nikolaidis, 41 years, Melbourne
Further Reading:
Death and Dying – The Cycle of Life and Death
Death & Dying – A Taboo Topic or a Joyful, Normal Conversation?
The Quality of Mercy: A New Perspective on Aged Care
The Way of the Livingness is my Religion
In the cycle of life and lives to we enter and leave each life with the same wonder, love and cherishing?
I was working alongside a group of Universal Medicine students who choose to live in accordance to ‘The way of The Livingness’ and it was a magical experience for me. We all worked together as one unit there was laughter and chatting as we all got on with the task at hand there was no bossiness of it has to be done in a certain way, there were no personalities just a one unified group working with one purpose. My heart was over flowing with love for these people for the harmony we were in. It shows me that we can all live this way and that the day will come when what I experienced will be common place. I could clearly feel we were living the future now.
‘For the students of The Way of The Livingness the world over, this is how we care for our elders.’ And this is not just for elders but with people who are sick, having surgery and need to be looked after in the hospital or at home, for mothers to be who are expecting and of course once the little one is born. Making love and care part of everyday. I have seen this many times and also been part of support networks and the way a team works together to support someone. And the thing that i really noticed was just how easy, simple and natural it was. And with a team no one feels stressed or if they are taking on more than another because we are all there to support equally. I am and will always be a student of the Way of the Livingness and constantly learning for there is much to learn but you are right in that this way is turning the current and very sorry state of the world around ✨
When surrounding ourselves with love at any age we are prepared for every situation in life and death by the way our response is coming from a Livingness of love and not a reaction to what life can throw our way.
I agree with you Greg when we at last accept that we are surrounded by love that every breath we take is a breath of heaven then reaction falls away like water off a Ducks back. Nothing can touch the purity of love.
I work in care and if you asked anyone they would most likely say it is in a sorry state of affairs. When I bring care and love into the way I am with myself, I then take that to work with me and the difference is felt by all I work with, staff and service users alike.
Love what you have shared Katerina, and maybe as we will get to passing-over the way we have lived, as this will pave the way for us passing in our sleep without any need for care as our Soul because of the Love we have lived will say you are complete this life time to return to heaven?
I volunteer and see many older people some of them do not have long in this world and I have had many interesting conversations about dying with them and two things stand out. One that many wish they had done more or said what was truly on their minds and not held back and two many are afraid of dying as it is not something that is discussed and so it is a fear of the unknown. So I do wonder why we hold back from this conversation is it because we have a lot of emotional attachment to the person dying? Is it possible that if we knew what happened as we passed over there would be less fear for the person dying and for those who are left behind?
Good call Katerina ‘Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to.” For this is what is possible now.
Self care always starts with self, then when we have this as a foundation we can bring this to others, ‘ true care underpins everything, and that it’s in this full embrace of ourselves that we then surround ourselves with love and true family until our dying breath.’
“Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.” How different our world would be if we actually honoured these birthrights in each other without question.
Taking care of our elderly in this way is the most honouring thing we could do for them. And what a blessing, that they may know there is another way to pass over, and that it is possible to return again with this renewed understanding to begin their next life.
Maybe if these teachings are presented to our babies then when pass-over comes our Livingness will hold us in the glorious love that has been lived.
If we take reincarnation in consideration it is a very sad fact that many people pass over not connected with true love and care so that is then also the imprint they will come back with next life and so the cycle goes on. Imagine it being that we pass over knowing love to our bones then the imprint in our next life will be one of love too.
It really is extraordinary as to how many ageing people end up in care homes and are then left to live out their days in an environment that is mostly about function with little integrity or honouring of the people who are being cared for. To offer something different that brings a joy and respect, and true care to these people is surely something we are all worthy and deserving of.
It is so true, we all deserve to pass over with dignity and respect, however what I love about The Way of The Livingness principles is that it doesn’t stop there, in fact it gets taken to many levels beyond that and the absolute care, love and dedication in making sure the person is cared for and looked after by a community is absolutely extraordinary.
The thing about imagining is that it can create pictures, which in my experience usually lead to disappointment. So, maybe something to consider is the relationships that one has each and every day, and where these will lead to is an unknown except for their quality.
I look forward to the day where spending our final days/months and passing over with respect, dignity and love is part of our normal. And I know it is up to all of us to bring that to our lives now.
“Imagine knowing that what is before you as you are close to parting from this life, is an ending that’s glorious, as you are surrounded by people who are your family through and through regardless of whether they’re a blood relation or not.” This is indeed a beautiful and deeply honouring thing to imagine. Perhpaps one day we won’t have to inagine it as it will be true.
“Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to.” The day I realised that this was possible I cried with appreciation, joy and the understanding that I had made the choices I had, to be blessed to now know this to be true.
The tragedy for so many older people currently is that they have given up on life and are waiting to die, some for many years, rather than recognising that we can have purpose in our lives until our last breath and we can all support our elders in this.
The feeling of brotherhood in any community is how they treat each other, particularly the more vulnerable among them.
I work in the care industry, not homes but in each clients own home and it’s as you’ve described Katerina. If there is no care for ourselves where ever we currently are in life then there will be no care for others at any stage in their life. Even if we think we are being caring for our loved ones it has to start with ourselves.
“To live in the knowing that as we reach our parting years we will be held in the warmth and care we innately deserve gives us the freedom to live every day in the joy we are meant to live in. ” If this were truly the case, our aged care system would be completley different to what it is today, as family relationships would become more honouring of each other.
We’ve seen what happens when we live each days as war, as a struggle to be overcome by pushing on. But what our body and heart would be like if we joyfully celebrated each moment is yet to be widely known. Why don’t we give it a go and find out?
I can’t wait to see a society that truly embraces aged care for what it can be, to support, respect and honor those in older age stay connected to their soul and inspire others until their last breath.
Connecting to everyone as if they are never going to be seen by you again so all you share is the decency and respect that you would bring to God then we would have a situation where we had no regrets and thus pass-over in a completely calm and relaxed state. And the same for those who are left behind we would understand that we have also completed with them by expressing all of our divine-ness so feeling the completion of that relationship.
Connecting to someone as if you might never see them again, committing to each moment as if it were our last.. if we were to live life like this, every moment of every day, imagine the depth of our conversations, the appreciation of what we have and what we are living, the richness of each moment. Do we choose this, or do we choose getting lost in our self-created problems and issues instead, being blind to the beauty within and surrounding us 24/7?
We have separated our lives so much in terms of what we do, work, hobbies, interests and family that we have broken many of the natural relationships that exist just from living in a community and the inter dependency of relationships that exist.
Building the bonds in a community feels so important then everyone would see it as their responsibility to care for all and brotherhood would expand.
For there to be a community that supports us to pass over is pretty awesome. There is very little support out there bar nursing homes, so to be able to come together as a society and care for the elderly is really a new way forward for how we can have purpose until our last breath.
We all can take responsibility into our old age and set a caring way of living from our early years that we carry to our passing-over and in doing so honouring those that support us in that passing. So we have fully enveloped a humble-appreciative-ness of our life and those who are part of our extra-ordinary-family in all we do then we are blessed by our own living and the Livingness of those who bring what ever is needed in our pass-over phase of life.
I love this – The vacant abandoned look in the eyes of the elderly is an indictment on the lack of quality we have allowed as acceptable.
And this can be turned around very quickly should we just allow some space to connect and feel the love that is there.
“Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.” What a different world we would live in if this were respected by everyone, for everyone.
Understanding reincarnation and all that this science is bringing to us why would we not ask others to be connected to their last breath and when we do stay connected life is never a drudgery but is a true blessing for all concerned.
It is so inspiring to know that we all have access to something that can truly support us as we get older, and that it is down to us and how we choose to take care of ourselves. I regualrly visit care homes and see the results of people who have not chosen to take true care of themselves, or who have become lonely in their old age. Anything we can do to support our younger generations to prevent these numbers from increasing can only be a good thing.
What a gold sentence you have rounded off with :
‘We go about our lives in the knowing that true care underpins everything, and that it’s in this full embrace of ourselves that we then surround ourselves with love and true family until our dying breath.’
This is exactly what we need to realize and claim back to be our normal day every-day life.
Thank you for bringing this back to our attention of what is possible and what we prefer to no longer continue.
The more we hold ourselves and each other in the truth of who we are the more we will have systems that support us rather than hinder us.
A powerful honouring of the fact that we are Souls first and our bodies are what allows us to be here. The age of our body does not change this fact or the right we have to be honored, cherished, cared for and deeply loved for no less than we would a new born. Yes, this is being live today and through The Way Of The Livingness it can be observed how this way of being and caring for each other is actually quite simple, natural and deeply confirming, loving and unifying.
“The Way of the Livingness is turning this sorry state around. To live in the knowing that as we reach our parting years we will be held in the warmth and care we innately deserve gives us the freedom to live every day in the joy we are meant to live in”. What a wonderful opportunity and gift this is, to embrace all that we have ever known within us and to live it in full before we pass over. A far cry from where so many people in residential care homes are today.
“We are born in the bundle of love we innately are, and it is our natural right to remain in that love until the end of our days and beyond.” I love what you have written here Katerina and I could feel the warm ripples of truth in your words flow throughout my body. This is definitely a truth that needs to be shared with all, from the very young to the very old, reminding them of the love they naturally are.
“Imagine living every day with the knowing that as you enter the twilight years of your life you will be cherished and cared for to the bone, by a community that will be there for you and with you until your parting breath.” Katerina, I imagine that this is what most of us would wish for, even those who would rather not admit it. To be supported and so deeply loved at the end of our life is true confirmaiton of who we are and what we have chosen to live up to that point.
As our physical body ages and becomes frail the being within doesn’t change.
I work in the aged care sector and sometimes wonder about the lives the elderly I care for have lived and if their situation is reflecting that back to them at that point. Some have the loving support of their families who have an active input in the care of their parents but others have no one, and their living conditions are very unsanitary and often clutter filled, along with a stubbornness to let things go even if it meant they have more room to move and live, and we have room to do our jobs more efficiently. The situations within the homes of the elderly are vast and varied, but I would think that most people would be shocked to see the truth of how some of them live and have lived for a long time prior to getting old and needing assistance.
The care of others at any time of our lives is a precious thing, but the care of another as we prepare to pass over is surely one of the most valuable things there can be.
A beautiful consideration for our elderly and a real level of care that is missing in society today that we can live and bring to our elder years for everyone to be appreciated and held in love in respectively .
We celebrate a baby being born into this world but we don’t celebrate when that same baby in its elder years passes on. We need to celebrate who we truly are and let go of the focus on race, age, material possessions, career etc. then each person is honoured and respected for the quality and expression they in truth bring to this world.
Why do we settle for anything less than love in our lives when love is who we are?
I have heard and seen up to 5 students who have passed over in the auspice of the Universal Medicine Aged Care model. Working beside the industry for a short term and being aware of tycoons preying on the susceptible old age selling them comfort and no quality where it is about money and not true care is disgusting. I know what quality I will die in and come back to and, for a low price.
How we live and care for ourselves, the depth of tenderness and honouring we have for our bodies will affect the level of care and support we receive when we need support.
We define life from a false way we have lived, pursuing a future solution when a very ancient and familiar loving way is there waiting for us to live – The Way of The Livingness. It’s time to cherish our lifetimes of wisdom and innocent sweetness. Thank you Katerina.
‘Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.” I absolutely love what you have stated here and agree 100%. Unfortunately, this is not the case for so many as they enter the last stages of their lives. But as those who are students of The Way of The Livingness are coming to know there is another way to live and to be cared for until our last breath and that unequivocally is the birth right for all.
Respect and Dignity is far from what many people are experiencing at all ages. The Way of the Livingness is such that it is a part of life not something that we take on board as we age. No matter the time of passing this is what is lived and offered to everyone.
We are living our future care now by how we care for ourselves everyday in every way. This is very worth considering in our day to day.
I was just reading your blog where you wrote the word “dread” in relation to death and dying and I noticed there is a d-e-a-d in dread. How come there is not a j-o-y in dying. We have completely bastardised and messed up the whole way we deal with passing over just as we have messed up pretty much every other aspect of life and then we wonder why we are in such a mess! As you say it is time to bring love back and reimprint all aspects of our life and especially our end of life which is a time of great importance and preparation for our next life – there is no death (other than of the body) and there need not be any dread.
There was a program on the BBC recently of a scheme where the elderly take in a housemate for a reduced rent here in London. It started because renting for students is so high and it also gives the elderly person someone to talk to. What transpired between the student and the elderly lady was a great friendship, and both of them benefitted in ways that they never imagined.
I love that Julie – it makes so much sense!
This is wonderful and so supportive for everyone – very worth considering thanks Julie.
This is a great idea Julie, and could support both people.
This is great to hear Julie – loneliness is a major problem for people in the way our society is structured, often encouraging more separation of people sat within four walls and connecting with very few people in their day .
So important to actually have this love in our lives in our final days or years, so many of our elderly do not experience this and it can be a very lonely and isolating time.
“Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.” How we view and treat elderly people in society and in the healthcare system nowadays is the opposite.
I agree Annelies, I am currently working with the elderly as a carer in their homes and the amount of time they spend on their own is shocking. Over Christmas I worked in a gated community, the houses are all uniquely designed, almost Disney like with character, very cute but inside these houses are all single people who are very lonely.
‘The fact that it’s only from a foundation of true care that we can then enrich all aspects of our lives and be truly successful, has been forgotten’ And it’s not until we start living this true care that this statement becomes real.
It feels amazing to know that as we move into our older years, we have a community that honours and respects the beingness of a person to their last breath, celebrating and cherishing them for who they are and setting a foundation that will support them to come back in their path of evolution, back to soul.
I have been in situations recently that have completely exposed the great lack of true care in care homes and in hospitals. Quite shocking to realise it is more often about money rather than people.
The Way of The Livingness brings a completely different understanding of a depth of care that nurtures all equally so, starting with the innermost connection with ourselves and this naturally is there to share with others by reflection.
Gorgeous article Katerina! . . . ‘We are born in a bundle of love’ . . . love this and we should be able to die ‘in a bundle love.’
This beautiful image completes the cycle of care and love, guiding humanity on its path of return home
Getting older and dying are not just the end of one life, they are the preparation for the beginning of another life, our next life. And therefore, aged care, true care, is of utmost importance.
A beautiful and re assuring sharing Katerina. The Way of The Livingness is and will, into our future re awaken Brotherhood for the ages and all of humanity.
I am fortunate to have the understanding I do now with The Way of The Livingness. Before I came to this way of living I saw death and sometimes still do see death as a taboo subject and certainly one that is not joyful and worth looking forward to. I am coming to see this is the complete opposite of how death truly is and that there are so so many ideals and pictures we hold that value death in a completely opposite way to how it ought to truly be.
Imagine if we ALL cared for ourselves and each other from start to finish ie from before birth (conception) to pass over – that makes so much sense really it is a wonder that we don’t – why wouldn’t we?
As we all pass we should be supported and nourished by the solid warmth and care of love and respect, not the gradual shrinkage or withdrawal that allows one to simply wither away.
“Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.” Equality for all – from the day we are born right until our last breath. yet do we have this in our world? No not yet. Old people are treated very differently in society, Yet they have been net contributors to it throughout their lives. Let’s give them the respect, decency, dignity and love they – we all – deserve. For we too will be old one day.
“Imagine living every day with the knowing that as you enter the twilight years of your life you will be cherished and cared for to the bone, by a community that will be there for you and with you until your parting breath.” This is massive, I think the majority of the world live with a level of anxiousness about what might happen to them when they’re older – especially with all the reports in the news about how awful nursing homes are. We need to start caring for each other the way we deserved to be cared for.
Living in true community is living embracing all equally across our community with the love, care and honour of truth that we all rightly deserve. The power of living true community is possible through living these qualities for ourselves first. I have witnessed how this is not only possible but is being lived today by the students of The Way of The Livingness. This is our future, one we all belong to.
Some very powerful and poignant points you make Katerina, we have forsaken our God-given rights to decency, respect and LOVE for our elderly as you say, and all at the end of the day to those who see the opportunity to capitalise on a necessary industry of care. It is yet another example of how we as a society have accepted a bar set so low, that even these fundamental rights are jettisoned. The Way of the Livingness is re-writing our history, and offering a way forward that is achievable and accessible. It is the necessary way of the future.
We all deserve this level of loving care. Let’s start allowing it in ourselves first. Then it will become natural to share it in the same way with others and a new ‘normal’ will be possible in this field.
It’s pretty wonderful to know that as we age, we are not simply becoming less and less relevant and that we are an equal member of society and community until it is our time to pass over. The Way of the Livingness has definitely redefined for me what life is about from beginning to end and back again.
I love how the title talks about the glory of aged care, we have lost so much in getting caught up in the functionality of taking care of basic needs for the cheapest cost rather than looking after the whole person. It is inspiring that we now have examples of true aged care which involves the community around the elder whose needs are supported with loving care and respect. This frees others to commit to living a purposeful life knowing that support is available if the need arises.
When we don’t step up, we leave the spot vacant and when someone else steps up who we don’t like – for example a large corporation more about profit than people- and takes the space, we get outraged. But it is we who have left the space in the first place, that is where our attention should lie. The Way of the Livingness is claiming back that space and saying to humanity, this is how we should be looking after our elderly, loving them, respecting them and cherishing them. Gorgeous and powerfull article Katerina, thank you.
“Imagine living every day with the knowing that as you enter the twilight years of your life you will be cherished and cared for to the bone, by a community that will be there for you and with you until your parting breath.”. Yes I can imagine it, feel it and know that it is actually so very natural for me and for every other person in this world, to be supported so lovingly and respectfully during the last passage of this life. End of life care is not meant to be a big money-making venture but a honouring of all that each person is; a beautiful being that deserves to be respected in full right to their last breath.
” Foundation of true care that we can then enrich all aspects of our lives ” This is the basis of life the foundation of care we put in place for ourselves is what allows love to grow and develop to our dying day.
The Way of The Livingess allows us to feel that the level of care we provide ourselves never need to drop regardless of what comes our way in life, be it growing up, life stituations or the closing of our life. That our essence that deserves such care never changes, only expands and we can expand with it.
How extraordinarily different this would be, especially when one knows what happens in the industry now… how cherishing and honouring this all sounds
What you have expressed here Katerina is beautiful. I love how you emphasise that deep love and care throughout our entire lives is just so important;
“Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to.”
“Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.” So very true Katerina though this is often not many people’s experience, many die lonely and in fear, regretting the life they have not lived.
True community supports a child in becoming an adult and then supporting that adult in their elder years so that they pass with a joy and lightness of heart knowing with out doubt they will be coming back in the quality they left in.
True community is always preparing the soil for the next generation.
True care is at the core of our being but are we willing to re-connect to this innate feeling that we are love and can support ourselves by caring and nurturing our bodies? Building this foundation is key other wise we hang on to the need of staying in this physical world of us not feeling our true purpose in life and die struggling without letting go of what is not true and this does not makes passing over the very loving process of completion that it can and should be.
Knowing true family is a real blessing as we can feel we are being held with such love and care until our last breath.
Having worked in aged care for many years I am well aware of the sad and lonely state that some people pass over in. It is a inditement of our society that we have enough money to send people to the moon and to spend millions on different projects yet our health care systems are failing.
To truly change we all need to take responsibility, for ourselves, the way we live and for those around us just like how is being shown by The Way of The Livingness.
What’s very interesting is that we are up in arms at a baby being neglected or left by themselves, yet we don’t bring that same awareness and concern to how our elderly are living and being cared for at home and in many aged care homes.
I like the way you have described passing over here as a continuation of how we have been living up until that point. And as such we can prepare for our passing over and the quality it will be in simply by addressing the quality of all our relationships now. As it is these relationships that will in effect carry us through to the next stage of our evolutionary cycles as we learn how to live as the truly deeply loving people that we all naturally are.
Most people’s normal way of living every day doesn’t have the warmth from within that then ignites every aspect of their lives. Our inner connection is at the base of absolutely everything – when we nurture this, we nurture our entire life and beyond, and so much more. It’s in the rekindling of the connection with ourselves that we feel the warmth of death itself, knowing it is a cycle within a cycle as we simply, gracefully circle around the sun again and again and again.
We can’t pretend death won’t happen, it will. And we can’t pretend that the pathway to death will be an independent one, it won’t. A community of support and love is the way forward for those passing, and this is what The Way of the Livingness offers.
‘We go about our lives in the knowing that true care underpins everything, and that it’s in this full embrace of ourselves that we then surround ourselves with love and true family until our dying breath.’ Absolutely Katerina, this then is such a strong support that holds us and sees us into the next time around, knowing of true brotherhood.
Surrounding ourselves with true family is far from the picture we may have, but it is always precisely what we need to keep evolving. Now that is love.
It is so sad to hear you say the ‘cold dread’ of death, because that is what I have found is one of the most prevalent feelings around death and dying. The fear of the unknown. If there is a way to make the end of our lives as full of love as the start of our lives then this should be something we investigate and nurture to ensure the model is replicable in its care and nurturing and then put into practice for all.
“Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.” Death, like birth, is a time when we are very vulnerable and often at the mercy of someone else’s decisions. How important is it that we organise ourselves to make sure that we get the most supportive team around us when preparing for our final breaths? And what a blessing to have such a team there as support – this alone means we can’t wait to come back again to do it all again as many times as is needed for us all.
What a gift to read this morning! I love the reality of this “We are born in the bundle of love we innately are, and it is our natural right to remain in that love until the end of our days and beyond. Most in the world today live in the absence of remembering this fact, and death and dying are synonymous with the cold feeling of dread;” I can really feel that this is what underpins the fear of passing over. It feels cold and empty. Yet when you describe the potential at the start of your blog it is full of love – just like our birth.
I am always deeply moved when I observe and feel the depth of care, honourg, responsibility and oneness reflected by those who choose The Way of The Livingness as their foundation. They provide a wonderful reflection how this level of love and support of one another can continue from birth right up to passing over. It is very possible and practical, it makes sense and in fact it is our most natural way of being.
Care of the elderly has seriously become all about money in the private sector and in the public sector for those that can’t afford the brochure style, well it seems a total mess with not enough funds. We do all deserve respect and dignity until our dying day.
Perhaps our fear of dying is derived from how we see elderly being treated and how painful, slow and disconnected the process can be. So, it’s not dying itself, but the process leading up the that point in our evolution. Also, the way we live equates to how we die, and in the state of the world now with people living in conflict and irresponsibility with themselves and others, it makes sense that we fear having to be accountable for those choices in death.
Katerina, this is beautiful, ‘We are born in the bundle of love we innately are, and it is our natural right to remain in that love until the end of our days and beyond.’
Reading this I can feel how we do not care for, cherish and honour ourselves and others as we age and pass over in the way that we do for a baby or young child. I can feel that there is a giving up, that its ‘too late’ or not worth the time to deeply care for elders before passing, when actually it feels natural and true for the love, care and nurturing to be there until we pass over as well as when we are born.
This is surely the sign of a vital and evolving community, to care for all with the respect that one would always wish for oneself, through all of life’s stages.
We are all worth to be deeply cared and loved for and your article Katerina makes us all feel the love and care from the Way of the Livingness where care and love is essential in our everyday lives.
“Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time.” The Way of The Livingness offers us a way to live where we can appreciate ourselves deeply so to appreciate the wisdom of our elders and offer them the true care and respect they deserve.
I love how you bring it all back to a deep care that is so very important throughout our entire life. There is no moment in our life where we do not deserve this deep love and care.
Me too Esther… It is very empowering to know that we have ultimate discretion in how we live and the choices we make. It makes sense for our lived life to mould how we die and brings the responsibility back into our own hands.
What an amazing model there is that can be shared with the world. I have family members who are fragile, and part of the acceptance of their passing is because I know there is endless love and support around them as they start to pass over. Wow what an opportunity this is – and even to be able to talk about passing over as a family before it happens, and start to express how we want to go, how we want to be cared for – this is unheard of and changes the whole dynamic of death and what it means to people.
For in fact it is just another part of life.
Conventional models of social care informed by ‘quality standards’ are set low and are cause for concern. Elder care training emphasises health and safety, food hygiene, safeguarding, infection control, moving and handling, all important in their own right, but often leads to a functional approach to care. What is missing is true care of the person and not ‘person-centred’ care. Rarely is the well-being of the ‘whole’ person explored and responded to. Neither is it fully understood how the well-being of carers impacts on the quality of care given. True care supports another without conditions or boundaries as an equal, lovingly, tenderly and with compassion. Universal Medicine’s model of elder care sets a new marker of how communities can come together to support each other through illness and elders in their final years.
Goodness it makes me want to go into aged care. I find it hard to consider this level of love is not our normal and there are people who pass over not being held in the love they were born into. You are quite right – person centred care which is what we talk about as the ultimate model now, is missing the importance of the level of care that is normal for the practitioner to then pass on. True care is not functional care.
“Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to.” If we truly care for ourselves and each other then this way of living and passing over is there for us all.
How extraordinary that such a deeply dysfunctional endemic part of our society is being uplifted and reconfigured with such grace and beauty.
We deserve to be loved through whole our life, as it is our birth right, and the age care should be a natural part of that.
Beautifully expressed Nico. We have become very de-sensitised and no longer feel ourselves or other people. It is now accepted as normal that many of our elders are isolated, neglected, exploited and abused and it has nothing to do with us. Communities have broken down with no will or interest in coming together to support each other. Instead we’ve adopted an arms length approach leaving responsibility to Social Care agencies means we don’t have to do anything and if we do it is the very minimum.. We’ve lost the will of collective responsibility and withdrawn into individual and separate worlds. And yet Universal Medicine has shown that communities can re-activate, take responsiblity and support each other.
So on one hand we have the business of aged care for the elderly and on the other a community based model both which may offer dignity and care all depending on the quality with which we hold each other in absolute equalness and respect.
“We go about our lives in the knowing that true care underpins everything, and that it’s in this full embrace of ourselves that we then surround ourselves with love and true family until our dying breath.” The embracing of ourselves with true care is such a supportive and essential foundation, so when we do require care from another there is a clear foundation of care solidly in place coming from with-in our bodies. Then the carers naturally start at this place with the care they offer, this is my understanding of the observations made while working with Residents in care.
I am sure that for many people there is a great fear that their later years will be one’s of loneliness and lack of care. It is heartening to know that our current model does not have to be our future and that we can start to re-set how we look at aged care.
I have spent some time working in an aged care facility, a fairly large one at that… Full of many amazing staff, truly dedicated, and yet on the whole burnt out and just plain ‘burnt’ by an industry that continues to squeeze every last dollar it can out of the enterprise. I’ve seen reports of massive profits, and still, ask any staff member and they are pushed to the gunnels – understaffed, undervalued… A general manager, an outstanding woman full of a deep responsibility and care for those under her governance, said to me, “I drown in here every day.” Other staff told me she was often seen to be working until 10pm at night, night after night, by herself…
‘Activities’ offered to residents were largely ‘fluff’ – momentary distraction, little that respected or engaged people who, when you scratch the surface, will reveal a lifetime of quite amazing stories to you… For whatever level of dementia or faded cognitive awareness and engagement, no-one in there was stupid.
In our denial of the reality of age, death and the dying process, we have relegated so many of our elderly and infirm to places like this – bastions that feel like prisons, where unless you enter their gates, you too are ‘protected’ from the reality, the locked dementia wards and the rest… It suits us, in our loveless denial, to be this way, to not know what’s going on, does it not? We have created a situation that is like a sci-fi movie of old – one where we deny the existence of people past a certain age…
If we truly want to see ‘another way’ in our societies, it starts with our own attitudes and actions here and now – our relationship with age, death and dying. We all deserve to be so deeply held – yet this is a constant quality to be brought to our every day, and not sequestered to moments of our own selective choosing.
What? You mean one day I will likely (if my time is not up before then) get very old, and actually, no… die? I will vacate this physical body and move on to another plane, that I may come back and do it all again??
“NO!” screams the majority of humanity. “Don’t bring me this reality, I don’t want to know.” “Yes, I do know that we are not dealing with this, and the state of our current aged and palliative care is but a reflection of our larger burying of the issue – but I’m not going there. I don’t want to deal with it, in fact I REFUSE to deal with this.”
And so it goes, until a whole new paradigm is set – as you’ve so eloquently described Katarina – and we not only meet the reality of dying and passing over from this life, but celebrate the profound learnings and deepening in love that it offers.
“The fact that it’s only from a foundation of true care that we can then enrich all aspects of our lives and be truly successful, has been forgotten.” This is sadly true as we are in an era when economics is more important than people.
Thank you Katherina, superbly shared = simply there is another way and the The Way of The Livingness has it all. Not from an pride or arrogance, but simply truthful living and living and giving everything we got. Inspired on the works of Serge Benhayon.
When we care for ourselves it is easy to care for all others.
In a nutshell, we all have a responsibility to truly care for ourselves and in that we can truly care for others.
‘Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to’. Oh yes my body says, this is exactly how I will pass over being a student of The Way of The Livingness, being a student of life.
There can never be a time when we do not care for our elderly members of society because they are a constant presence in our lives, and I am currently learning how to care does not always mean hands-on work, it can be in organisational/coordinated roles, it can simply be in providing a service that supports everyday living. Care is multi-faceted and all encompassing, therefore there is a place for everyone within it to give and to receive.
This is a very beautiful foundation Katerina of the absolute importance of holding ourselves in such deep regard, and how this supports others to equal this regard and reflect it back to us. When we have lived this for ourselves then we can surrender and trust others are there to hold and support us tenderly with true honouring and tenderness. Other wise the tension of uncertainty and insecurity can run in the minds of someone who hasn’t a foundation of love to surrender back to.
This is very beautiful to share Katarina, and as you have stated it is a way of living, that many are living, as community, a loving community where there is true care by the students of the Livingness, but this is a way we can all be living, as we are innately the same.
Every moment of life builds into the next moment until our last moment on earth this time around. The love that we have expressed and will express is important until our very last breath. This way of living with respect and love when practiced as a daily rhythm would only make sense to have Age Care which reflects at least the same level of respect and love, and it is very inspiring to see this happening in the world, which is a physical reflection of this love and respect being brought no different to a very important part of our life in completion, the preparation for our passing over.
The thing I have heard elder people speak of the most is dreading feeling lonely as they get older. We all play a part in developing communities that offer extended care to the elderly as required.
The thing is what has been described in this blog is not hard to put in place, it just means that the care is not just the responsibility of the immediate family and health care professionals, but care from the community equally available to all, regardless of how well you knew the person.
What the Way of the Livingness offers society regarding the support of the elderly is profound. It is from the community for the community, and is nothing short of stunning.
What a beautiful piece of writing to show that the quality of aged care is still in practice in parts of the world and breaking the belief that nursing homes are the only option.
The aged care industry has got it all wrong, sometimes all care is directed towards being at the dinner table on time, so we can get another day over with, and this is the reality of nursing homes. We live a life that is only focused on certain aspects like security and comfort and then check out through all other aspects, end up with dementia and then get moved by the same system. Aged care nurses enter the system because they truly care, and bringing more value back into this will be very beneficial for our society – all generations.
‘We go about our lives in the knowing that true care underpins everything, and that it’s in this full embrace of ourselves that we then surround ourselves with love and true family until our dying breath.’ How lovely to feel this love everyday of our lives, right up to our last breath. Knowing this love on a daily basis there is no need to live in fear of our last breath, nor to suffer from isolation and loneliness.
The magnate of what is presented by Serge Benhayon will one day be understood. Allowing my self to be open to being obedient to the divine plan with no thoughts going into what that looks like is a true purpose.
“Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.” A gorgeous reminder that there is no ending in the preciousness of true care – it is timeless.
Care needs to be redefined. It cannot just be about general hygiene and meeting a persons needs for survival. Care is not the bare minimum to keep someone alive. Actual care is what this blog is all about, cherishing our elders and acknowledging their passing as a transition and preparing them for this in every way.
beautifully said Rachael!
When we really comprehend how much we impact the whole world from our care for one another, how every thing we do leads to another choice and the next and the next. the ripple effects are huge and so important that we start to understand this
The luxury care home market is a booming business… preying on our fears of the poor quality of aged care in the past, and highlighting society’s lack of true brotherhood. Now we have to pay thousands of pounds a week to get a nice looking place, but even then the quality of the care is not guaranteed. That is because we are not focussing on the real service, and that is where Universal Medicine has hit the nail on the head. Its not the pretty curtains, or how comfortable the bed is… its the people that care for you that make all the difference.
I love how the way we care for the elders who are ready to pass over is being explored, and we can value our elders and love them so much that their lasting memories will be of the love they have been showered in- what an amazing legacy, benefiting them and us in ways we can’t count.
Yes the elders, we sometimes forget about them. There are nursing homes that takes care of them as they get older and we can take a breather that someone else tends to their needs but at the same time it doesn’t feel quite right though. We might go visit them every other week to see they are ok but I feel that many of them are lacking getting the true care they would otherwise love to receive, especially at the end of ones years where we need to feel very safe and held to feel safe to then eventually let go and then pass over gently and lovingly.
beautifully said Matts, this is so spot on!
It is great to bring the topic of death and dying out in the open. There is so much more to it than getting our will sorted and ticking of our bucket list. The loving care and nurturing support The Way of the Livingness offers is key building a relationship with ourselves and humanity that will support us in growing old and passing over full of the love and dignity we wish to return in.
A great point is raised here about how lucrative a business the care-home industry has become. Which is contra to what the words care and home really mean. This is not to say that businesses should not make money, but it is to say that that amount of money needs to reflect the quality of care given through and through and not just be used to give an exterior glow to a business that does not have true care at its heart. Because at the heart of the care home industry is the care for people, which must include all the staff as well. A complete and total environment of care is what is called for by our elderly, but rarely do we actually provide this in the wider community/societal setting. Not because the carers do not care, but because as whole the systems and the culture that they are working in will actually be working against them if at the end of the day all that matters is profit.
I am actually looking forward to passing over when it happens. Even though I very rarely look forward to events, because they will be what they will be. Passing-over will be different this time because I will hold myself in true connection until my last breath.
I know for me there is a lot of fear around getting sick as I get older and who I would have to look after me knowing I don’t have children that would be interested enough to give me that time that that may take.
Thank you Katerina, you bring to the fore how very much we are worth being deeply cared for.
True care starts with us delivering that to ourselves first as a basic, and then when we need care from others at certain times that can only be given, in my experience, if the carer has a degree of caring for themselves first.
The Way of The Livingness has inspired me hugely in every aspect of life. I now, see aging as a beautiful process that can be lived in grace, joy and as a celebration. It has inspired me to turn my fears away with regards to aging. When we appreciate the beauty of ageing, accept that this is a very natural process, we will naturally know how to care for ourselves and our elderly with true love and true care. The Way of The Livingness is definitely inspiring more and more people to re-evaluate how we as a society are embracing aging and really all aspects of life. It is very eye opening and life changing when we allow ourselves to embrace what is available to us through the teachings of The Way of The Livingness.
Knowing we are more than the vessel we embody, recognising the beauty that never fades is within and who we truly are, that never diminishes …. when we deeply appreciate the Wisdom and Glory we have to share
There can be so much beauty and grace in ageing. It can be an incredible joy, as it so clearly is for many of the elders in our community. To behold this as a younger woman is an absolute inspiration, and it supports me to the endth degree to embrace myself and life more and more and more again. As women we are bombarded with images of cherished youth that slips away and the inevitable withering of our entire sense of worth as we inevitably age. It’s a curse and great lie we have allowed to be that hurts us in more ways than we often care to admit.
But the I see so many of the elderly women in our community, I instantly receive that healing. I know those false images to be the lies they truly are. I know my true beauty will never wither, will never die off. It is a freeing of so much, on so many levels.
We have been incarcerated by false ideals around ageing and dying, and in taking on those false beliefs we diminish ourselves and life as a whole.
The Livingness when chosen, supports a quality of life and a way of being that also supports the body. Making these choices throughout life and into ageing is a practical, loving support in investing in the quality I choose for myself till I pass over.
I agree ‘care has all been but thrown out the window’ and it is not just with the elderly but pretty much everything. It was heartbreaking yesterday to see a video of children in Aleppo that had been bombed with chlorine gas. Their clothes had to be stripped of their bodies and they were shivering in hospital holding onto oxygen masks some as young as five. This is an important discussion to have with regards to our elderly and how we care for and cherish them right to the end, and Universal Medicine has an outstanding model with the highest integrity, care and love that can be used all around the world, it is just up to us to put this in place. Ultimately though this true deep care and love needs to flow through all aspects of our lives from young to old, ‘Care is in the essence of how we live, and in the essence of how we are with those who need our support, be it in illness, a passing problem or in the closing years of our lives.’
It is fair to say, that when we are young, most of us tend not to worry too much about being old. It seems too far away to think about, and besides, being young is too much fun. But the reality is that we do, on the whole, actually get old, or elderly as I prefer to say. But I can see why most young people do not want to consider life in those twilight years, because when we look at the elderly today, it can be a very sad picture of isolation and painful bodies.
With The Way of The Livingness however, this simply does not have to be the inevitable end to anyone’s life, there is love abound for us all, more than enough, and all we have to do is live it, all the way from youth to our elderly years, love has no limits and it will not ever desert you.
I have elderly friends who live The Way of The Livingness. They are a huge inspiration to me in that they have re-embraced life and deepened connection with themselves and others, they have purpose in life and have claimed back responsibility for themselves. One still works as a volunteer at 86! Our elders have wisdom and love to share and it is a shame that so many are not in a position to exercise these beautiful qualities, a birthright of us all.
This is something we should all be talking about, The way the elderly are treated is some places is atrocious and we hear many horror stories of severe lack of care and extortionate sums of money charged for the privilege. Approaching our final days with dignity should be there for everyone.
Through the presentations of The Way of The Livingness, I have learnt a greater appreciation of my elders particularly my mother who not only shares much of her own insight, is always open to learning and listening to other ideas and ways to care for ourselves.
‘Most in the world today live in the absence of remembering this fact, and death and dying are synonymous with the cold feeling of dread; for the vulnerability of the human body has nothing to fall back on and deeply rest in when there is no foundation of true care to hold it.’ Bringing true care and love into the homes of people who are in their elderly years is such a joy and prepares them to pass over differently, having had this glimpse of love in their last days.!
When do we stop taking care of people? For sure this is clearly evident when we look at our current levels of care for older people but we actually stop taking care much earlier when it comes to our own self-care. If we were to regulate our levels of care to ourselves just as care delivery is within the care sector we would all be referred to safeguarding authorities for neglect. It is amazing that such true care is possible and so clear to feel when you experience this through anyone with commitment to true self care and The Way of The Livingness however this exposes the opposite – that the majority of people are not living and working like this and so this is reflected in the level of care we offer to others.
Aged care today is a sad thing to see, we don’t hold our elderly in the care they deserve but instead choose to let them hide away from life, crumpling under their own life experiences, and far from receiving the care they deserve.
Imagine being truly respected, and cared for right up to the end of our lives, and keeping our dignity too, through The Way of The Livingness we are able to honour ourselves and others. We may see elders as old and frail, however they have many years of lived experiences they can share, and we can learn from too.
It is something so special and super cool what The Way of the Livingness is sharing – how much the way we are living and connect with people has a massive difference in our lives. We all deserve absolute Love, Care and respect.
Beautifully said – “Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.” We should expect the right to be love rather than think it is something that only the lucky few achieve. The more we learn to self-love and then love ourselves the more we understand what love actually is and how it works.
“The Way of the Livingness is turning this sorry state around. To live in the knowing that as we reach our parting years we will be held in the warmth and care we innately deserve gives us the freedom to live every day in the joy we are meant to live in.” How wonderful to know that this level of care is available for us when we reach our elder years, knowing that we will be cared for as we wish to be cared for, and not to have to end our days in an environment that is simply there to tend to our most basic of needs, with little integrity and respect for who we are.
Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love. And when we start to self-care and self-love, this becomes a reality. The Way of the Livingness has greatly supported me to reconnect with my body and all the wisdom it contains, and I love to self-care which deeply supports me in my job of caring for others.
Being cared for deeply by others who also care for themselves makes a huge difference to the quality of care that is received. I have been looked after by students of the Way of The Livingness on two occasions following major surgery and it had a positive impact on my recovery so I can imagine it is a very nurturing and tender way when this is the quality of end of life care. Thank you Katerina for what is raised in this article.
A lot of nursing homes do have that glitzy appeal but lack genuine care and love on the inside, when I think about aged care it is a really simple job with lots of purpose, but the system is exhausting it’s staff, residents and visitors, there must be a different way.
Exactly Harrison. I know many people who have worked in a nursing home and they all say the same thing; they wouldn’t go back there. It involves long 12 hour shifts over several days where staff never get the space to fully recharge which results in sickness and absence days being continually high which then puts more pressure on the staff who have to work with colleagues who are off sick… You are right, the system is all wrong.
Your blog gave me goosebumps Katerina, as I reflected upon the nursing industry that we now have and the true potential of such a community of people who care for themselves with the quality and the divine right of love that we are all equally entitled to. This community of The Students of The Way of The Livingness are leading the way for all communities, not only in aged care but in all wards and areas. Imagine this true care being lived by the midwives and nurses who deliver our elderly back into this world to begin with.. our world is in much need of this too and fortunately there are more nurses leading this way forth.
This is definietly not and should never be a ‘pipe’ dream!! I have heard experiences of women that have been deeply cared for through illness in the way that you have shared. Yep ‘ The Way of The Livingness is definietly turning this sorry state around’ that is for sure ???? We need to make it about people and love not money, once it is made about people and true love the rest gets cared for including money. I love the concept in the Netherlands that students get to live rent free in an nursing home as long as they interact and help out definitely worth watching … https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UqSAix5SzU4
‘Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to.’ Bringing that level of care to palliative care should be the way it is , not the exception to the rule.
Love your open paragraph, it made me consider deeply that if this were my last breath was it to connect and be with God? And if it was my last breath, was it taken in the energy of being connected to my soul so that I was ready to be with God? Then, what would it be like to breathe every breath as if it was my last so that no matter what, I was ready to be with God?
This should stand without having to be said, ‘Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.’
‘Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to.’ Beautifully said Katarina and certainly not a pipe dream as ‘The Way of the Livingness’ supports us to live in true brotherhood and is leading the way with how we can truly support and care for our elderly and give them the respect and dignity that every being deserves.
Many people compromise there true impulses to settle in for arrangements and false promises. The consequence is a lack of love. This way of existing in life is reflected to us by the catastrophic situation in our elderly people homes.
The Way of The Livingness sets a new standard for real care.
Katerina this is so beautiful and brings a joy deeply felt with the the honouring and care we all know and are. “Care is in the essence of how we live, and in the essence of how we are with those who need our support, be it in illness, a passing problem or in the closing years of our lives.” the true honouring of our elderly and the passing over and knowing of a beautiful way of living is a gift to be shared by all. Thank you for showing that there really is another way to live in Glory and love .
When I see a newborn baby these days I also can’t help visualising my mother and many other elders in a nursing home. Both require the tenderness and care that honours who they are and supports them at this particular part of this life’s journey. We would never dismiss or allow a newborn to languish. Love is love and it is our universal language no matter what age.
True care comes from a true sense of family, family beyond blood lines but as a quality and natural sense of who we are as fellow human beings, as one humanity.
Experiencing my father in his elderly years with all the physical, psychological and social implications and challenges brings to awareness that the way one is able and open to deal with it is very much the result of how one has lived his life. There is much to learn even in age, to handle the momentum of one´s past choices is part of that. To be young at heart for sure helps a lot to not get stagnant, resentful, resistant to all the changes, a willingness and curiosity to embrace what comes next. To be graciously held and supported by those around is crucial to walk the last steps in life, and preparing for what comes afterwards.
We are honoured and cherished when we enter the world and deserve nothing less when we leave it. This is true care and not just words that say as much.
Somewhere along the line, the many paths trodden as we’ve gone about this life and many before that, we forgot some very basic tenets about life itself. About what it is to live together, truly, and that it is natural to live in joy, and in harmony. In remembering this truth again, care becomes a constant, a basic notion always present and all aspects of or lives, every stage of life onto death is cared for. This is our future because it is our way — the only way we can truly be.
Your title Katerina, The Way of the Livingness And the Glory of Aged Care is I feel to be deeply appreciated. It is true care based on love, that is honouring of the elderly, realising they have much Wisdom to share right to the end. This is redefining age care as we know it simply by valuing the cycle we are here to live and complete in the same energy we are born in to our last breath.
How beautiful to know that through The Way of The Livingness we are able to re-imprint how people pass over knowing love right up to the their last breath and understanding that the life we leave is in preparation for the next.
“Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to.” If we were to undersatand living and dying in this way, that how we live in one lifetime will determine how our life will be in the next, and actually take responsibility for our day to day choices our lives and our relationships would be very different . How amazing to have such clear access to this divine wisdom.
True care in society is something that is being introduced by the way of the livingness back to our society integrating how we all live and how we care for ourselves and our elderly and young being part of the cycles of our lives all deeply honoured and cared for. A beautiful article showing the real care and treasuring we can live and share and support with our elderly and the joyful way that can be lived by humanity throughout all our lives. This is very beautiful to read and know.
I love the simplicity of this – ‘Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.’. There is so much depth and wisdom in this – Thanks for sharing. Here reading this and knowing this to be truth and we have to call in an enormous force to counter react to what it that you are presenting.
‘We are born in the bundle of love we innately are, and it is our natural right to remain in that love until the end of our days and beyond.’ Somewhere along the way we choose to believe we are not love and so don’t honour this truth. How wonderful there are people able to support people to reconnect before their next part in the cycle of life. I love reading this.
Such a contrast to hearing the disturbing news that many care homes in the UK (and I have no doubt all around the world) do not report or prevent the sexual and physical abuse of elderly people. These people are deeply vulnerable. Many have lost their ability to alert those who may help or have no access to help so their abuse continues unhindered and is widespread. especially when the care homes do not alert the Police. If this were child abuse a much more robust response and outcry would be heard. Is society really saying some people are less important because of their age? My experience of really elderly people is that they become child like. So often many are very frail and afraid. How little we care. A great proportion of state money is given to the young to ensure they to secure the country’s success. Yet with elderly care, I often get a sense that money is given out of a reluctant obligation with little genuine care. This article is lighting the way in what seems to be a very dark arena.
I have worked in Aged care and have always felt how important it is to remember that each one of the residents was young once, they lived and loved and worked and contributed to society as we do. They are to be valued but society does not encourage this. I often wonder how good for us retirement actually is and I am inspired by those elders who have continued to ‘work’ and take an interest in life and people in one way or another, still valuing themselves and being valued, until their last breath. I know this is not possible for some but it could be so much more of a common thing than not were we to celebrate those who are aged rather than seek ways to put them away and forget about them. To me this is a reflection of us not wanting to contemplate ageing ourselves.
This is a great conversation to start as the quality of care on offer to those in their final years or months is pretty low. However I can also see there is a responsibility on us all to consider how we live our lives during our younger years having an impact n our health as we age. So often people say that their issues are because ‘they’re getting old’. However there is so much more to it than this and it is time to wake up to this True Fact. Thank goodness The Way of The Livingness is leading the way in this field and showing true Way to Live throughout all our life regardless of age.
“…Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to…” The living quality of how we leave this world in set a great foundation for the return back.
There is so much to be developed and evolved when it comes to aged care, it horrifies me what many many old people live in their final years; we have so much more to offer the end of life than what we have currently accepted.
Many elderly people live lonely lives tucked away in care homes or living on their own. This is a sad indictment of society today, thank goodness then, that the Way of The Livingness is starting to address this trend to hide our old folk away, by showing our older generation the respect they deserve and the care that they truly need in a way that is honouring and loving. Many of us fear the cold dread of death but it doesn’t have to be this way and opening up and discussing the death and dying process and caring for our elderly is a true blessing, thank you to the Way of the Livingness for showing us that there is another way, not only to live, but to pass away gracefully feeling loved and cherished.
We tend to dismiss each other and ourselves as we get older, without appreciating the lifetime of experiences we have gathered and the wealth and wisdom we can offer others at this stage of our lives. To treasure and honour the elderly is sorely needed and to observe The Way of The Livingness working against this trend is a very beautiful thing.
“Imagine living every day with the knowing that as you enter the twilight years of your life you will be cherished and cared for to the bone, by a community that will be there for you and with you until your parting breath.” What an incredible blessing this is, to be part of a community where this is not a dream but the living reality. It should be the same way for our entire approach to aged care.
Through my time connecting and talking to Students of the Way of the Livingness, I have learnt as much from eight year olds as I have from eight-eight year olds. We all have amazing lived wisdom and experiences and we are crazy foolish to not nurture, embrace and love this wisdom until it’s last breath because it serves us all.
The street that we live on has a number of very elderly people living on it. Yesterday the kids and I took a trolley load of apples from our garden round every house on the street, giving them away. But actually it was just a great excuse to knock on their doors and say hello and connect to them. It was a joy to see their faces and eyes light up – but also very sobering to see how much they crave that human connection. It was grand thing to have done – but we (all) need to do way more of it. Connection is key. Loneliness is a killer.
Beautiful Otto, absolutely beautiful. We should all connect with our neighbours more!
It is so important to have quality care brought back into every area of our lives, including aged care.
The fact that we pay carers so little pay and vastly under-estimate their value is an indication of how much we care about true care in our society.
we have the opportunity to bring a true healing for all, patient family friends and carers, to show there is no need to fear nor fight death, and that it is a natural part of a cycle, within greater cycles; we are offered in every moment the choice to see once more where we truly are from and great part we play in the whole together.
wow, what a turnaround this would be, to live to our last breath developing deeper awareness, connection, and true understanding of our lives and what we can heal and discard leaving our being ever lighter and closer to the truth of who we are and where we are from. this would be my choice of passing over – a true passage of grace.
There is a general fear of ageing within many communities and I feel it’s because elderly people are seen as ‘having had their day’ and are no longer required, and so it isn’t a time that people look forward to. It doesn’t have to be this way if we value and care for people from the day they are born until the day they die…every moment as important as any other.
I agree Sandra there is a mentality in our society that says how much you are worth as a human being is based on how much you can physically do and achieve. So when we pass our ‘use by’ date as a human being and are no longer able to keep up with the world or do so much or contribute so much physically, we are essentially thrown out on the scrap heap and left to rot. However what we all bring to the world is far more than what we can physically do. There is an essence, a presence that when expressed is of great value till our last breath and should be cherished and supported. We are missing out on so much wisdom and grace that our elderly could be sharing with us, if we are prepared to stop incessantly racing forwards, and listen.
True family is what the whole of humanity is searching for. So often it can be seen in the eyes of those passing past, be it on the commuting journey to work or in a passing conversation — the eyes say so much. When we open up our hearts to family being everyone, we let true family come to us. We’re not confined to blood lines and we’re not confined to a limited number.
I don’t need to know what my future in my elder years will look like. I know I will be deeply, deeply cared for because of the family I now have, the world over and the depth of love that is in my life that is now my normal way. Who is how it is meant to be for us all.
Sadly elderly care has become a business model and a process – putting people on the back burner. But true business is about people first – and Universal Medicine stand true in this – putting care first and supporting our elderly for all that they are.
It is so lovely to hear and feel how caring for the elderly can and is done. After all we are not conformed to anything … why not just make it about Love as at the end of the day this is all it is about and true brotherhood. For how we currently are today this says it all for me ‘lack of quality of life we have allowed to be acceptable.’ and this isn’t just for our elderly it is for our everyone including care workers. A few days ago in the UK there was a story and discussion on the radio with people phoning in all throughout the day regarding care workers and how badly they are treated. The care workers were being paid £3.70 an hour!!!! With no holiday or sick pay and little if any support. This is pure greed from the agencies that charge far more for to the client for the care worker to come out. We need to value everyone from the worker to the elderly person and make it about people and not about money.
I have noticed the explosion of private retirement style places around our area. They all have the latest equipment and look great but when you walk in them there is something missing. Some are now putting massive fences and gates around them to make them ‘more exclusive’ but they look like a compound to me. It’s not that you can’t have this type of thing for whatever reason but the way it’s done and the reason can alter how it feels. A lot of people don’t feel safe and so we create these type and style of places to help with that. I don’t think it’s a great idea to lock ourselves away or allow ourselves to be locked away. Our ageing years are just as important as our younger years, no different as we are still people in need of care. It’s great to write about the things that need to change everywhere and how we are with are aged is one of them. After all everyone grows old.
To know that this level of care is available for our elderly is truly inspiring and wonderful to know, because how we currently generally percieve old age in our society today is not the way that you are describing here.
Humanity has so lost its way, and the quality of aged care so precarious and cold, we now have to train healthcare staff on compassion. It took Kate Granger, a terminally ill doctor diagnosed with cancer, to raise awareness of the lack of compassion in the NHS. Through a social media campaign called ‘Hello my name is Katie’ she described how it felt to be treated by doctors who did not bother to introduce themselves. In her own words “Being a patient has taught me a huge amount about being a doctor. Prioritising compassionate care in its rightful place alongside patient safety, under the umbrella of quality is perhaps one of the most important things I have learned.”
ref: NHS England ‘Kate Granger awards for compassionate care set for Expo 2015’
In no way do I feel I am about to pass over as I feel the healthiest, have more vitality and more engaged and committed to life than I have ever been in my life. However, as I am in my mid-sixties the reality is I am entering the latter stage(s) of my life. As I move through this stage in my life, being a member of the community of students of The Way of the Livingness is a truly marvellous support as I know the support described in the blog will be there for me as it is for every student.
‘Care is in the essence of how we live, and in the essence of how we are with those who need our support, be it in illness, a passing problem or in the closing years of our lives’. True Care is a way of being with ourselves first and equally with others. In a society that has forgotten to care for and neglects and abuses itself routinely, it is not surprising that aged care has been placed largely in the hands of profiteers, people are a secondary concern. In the model described here, people come first.
This emphasises how important true care is through all stages of our life to then have a solid foundation to stand on when it comes to our elderly years, as we have made life quite the opposite. We are being ‘cared’ for when we are young but the older we get caring is exchanged for functioning and doing our job so that by the end of our lives we are mere ‘subjects that have been used and are expired’.
The way that our elderly in current society are positioned and felt about is very far away from what you are here describing. You have outlined here that there is a different way to age and it doesn’t involve becoming an outcast in society, but lovingly integrated and living in fullness into elder years.
The livingness, warmth and care that is possible is reflected in the photo accompanying this blog, simply inspirational.
It’s an interesting line to draw from how you are looked at when you are born to that of how you are looked at when you die. When you are born there are adoring eyes and many thoughts of your future and yet when you die there are a multitude of eyes, sympathy, sorry, remorse, disgust possibly and what has changed. Are you not the same person underneath that was born and yet how you are looked at has changed dramatically. All the care and attention is unbalanced to have it just at the beginning and it needs to be the same at the end of our lives, “Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.”
Katerina, every rest home owner needs to read this as it gets to the core of what caring for older people is all about – love. We have to ask ourselves how we have come to the point where love of our older people is secondary to a profitable business and that we have allowed this to happen. If you are lucky enough to die in a hospice there is dignity and love almost always present and our society values and supports the hospice concept. Why is this not the case for those older people dying in residential care. It should not depend on where you die as to the type of care you get – the fact that we are glorious beings needing support at the end of our lives should be the main factor in our decision making.
Nowhere before Universal Medicine have I witnessed aged care with such joy and ease.
Wow, bring it on, this feels so gorgeous and what we all deeply crave, ‘Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to.’
Our feeling of life would feel very different if we knew that we had planned and lived a life within our lived ability that meant that we had support, love and care established to support us in our older years. It is fact that we physically become more vulnerable, who amongst is planning for this? Many of us, do not give our elder years a thought, in how we live, what we eat, our physical health. Our experience of life would be very different if we considered how it wold be when we become older made preparation for it, with how we care for ourselves and how we care for those around us, heading into older age.
I have worked with older people, in sheltered housing I managed a team who offered support in daily tasks and personal care. The reasons for them doing the job where varied and largely not about wanting to share ‘care’, some did want to connect and support but often the reasons for it where about self, to make money, to get by, and not about supporting society. There is an attitude in society that people that do the job of ‘carer’ are less, that it is yucky or degrading. People in this role react to this and also feel this way in some cases. I observed a lot of low self esteem, low self worth, depression, anxiety, overwhelm and reliance on food or drink as a way to get through the long, low paid shifts and the pressure that is there from working in an underfunded and challenging role. I myself was there because underneath anything else I wanted to connect with others, I could feel that I did not work as well as I could have because at that point I did not care for myself, as I do now. There where moments of amazing appreciation, connection and equality, which was awesome, but I was also tired, had low self worth and reacted to the systems and to other peoples judgements and opinions. The Way of The Livingness, is about care throughout in all areas, not saved just for others, or special occasions, but in an everyday lived way. An awesome way to share care with people old or young alike, to live it yourself and work from that.
Katerina, what you are sharing is so very beautiful, working part time in the care industry I see elderly people treated with very little respect and care, it feels very functional and time restricted, the industry is short staffed, badly paid, with zero contracts for carers and very little rights. And so it is an industry with a big turnover of staff, many of these people do care but often cannot afford to continue to work in this industry as the conditions of employment and pay is so bad. Often care companies are poorly run with little respect and appreciation of staff and yet this industry is vital, consistency of care and not having to rush onto the next person feels so important, but at the moment in general in care it feels very functional and feels more like survival than true quality of care.
‘The vacant, abandoned look in the eyes of the elderly who pass by, as they shrink away from life long before they pass over, is an indictment of the lack of quality of life we have allowed to be acceptable.’ This is so true Katerina; there is a hopelessness and exasperation of being old and frail and waiting to die, being desperate to die. The Way of the Livingness turns this completely on its head and gives purpose to every breath.
Thank you for sharing Katerina.
The true beauty you describe of aged care and the way of the livingness is a joy to read and so inspiring how could one want to be looked after and cared for in any other way. This will revolutionise aged care and bring society back into an honouring and appreciation for all our ages and stages of life lovingly.
Around where I work and have businesses there is a high number of aged people. They visited my businesses regularly and I know most by their first name. When they come in I see it as possibly the only interaction they have had with someone during the day and so take the time to say hello and check in. Some will even come in to tell me when they are going away so I don’t worry that I haven’t seen them. This reminds me of growing up when you looked after your neighbours house and animals when they went away for holidays. These personal relationships are very healthy and what you build a true community on.
What Katerina Nikolaidis does so well in this blog, is to give us both sides of the picture. Which is essential in understanding everything that is going on in our world today, because with all the facts and all the information we can see exactly what needs to change and where our responsibility lies within that greater whole picture that we have as life.
The beautiful thing about the The Way of The Livingness, is that we are willing to take this responsibility fully and to not shy away from it or to live it to the best of our ability, knowing that it takes no great or special skill, no chosen few or educated select. Anyone can live this way because it is at the heart of who we are, to care is our natural expression, it’s just that the way the world is at present does not support this, but we can change that, just by being ourselves and following the impulses we have to care.
This feels absolutely delicious the way you have described this way of dying Katerina. It also feels very normal even though it is not for most but it most definitely should be. In fact the parting process should be as much a period of celebration as it is a period of rest and appreciation.
“Care is in the essence of how we live, and in the essence of how we are with those who need our support, be it in illness, a passing problem or in the closing years of our lives.” – This I experienced this weekend very gladly. As I am handicapped with a slipped disc and can hardly stand or walk I did nevertheless intend to do a workshop this weekend with Chris James about singing and expressing. I brought a ‘sub-bed’ with me to lie more than sitting all through the workshop. And what I experienced was so much love & care from my brothers and sisters around me – it was just beautiful. And, I was not treated like a victim. Just it was done what was needed and I as my expression was appreciated as I was.
I nearly didn’t make it, because of my health condition I wanted to be home and ‘go back to function’ first before intending something like that. But to have this experience was great and brought me the realization that I am very sensitive and tender, feeling vulnerable AND that I can meet in this way of being and not be hurt, but cared for. What a healing! Thank you community! You/we are amazing.
This is gorgeous and inspiring, being open to being cared for is a wonderful part of life, it enables us to be more open to ourselves and others and allow ourselves to feel delicate, vulnerable and tender. And gorgeous to hear of how you where supported, with true care and equality.
“To live in the knowing that as we reach our parting years we will be held in the warmth and care we innately deserve gives us the freedom to live every day in the joy we are meant to live in.” I had not previously considered this, or rather appreciated it, as being an aspect of choosing The Way of The Livingness but it is true. As I now consider it I realise that it is a basis for a confidence that I had taken for granted and by doing so certainly gives a reason for living in joy everyday.
“Death and dying are synonymous with the cold feeling of dread; for the vulnerability of the human body has nothing to fall back on and deeply rest in…” Before Universal Medicine I used to dread getting older and the lack of dignity so many of us face as we get to the end of our lives. Death itself never worried me just the process of getting there. Being shown that true care exists and that this is not a pipe dream is a beautiful feeling and one hopefully will one day become our norm.
Your opening sentence in your blog Katerina already brings such a smile to my face – “Imagine living every day with the knowing that as you enter the twilight years of your life you will be cherished and cared for to the bone, by a community that will be there for you and with you until your parting breath.” Thanks to Universal Medicine and all its practitioners as well as the forever growing student body this is a reality that is unfolding, so no imagining needed anymore. Obviously there is a lot of work to be done to bring this way of being to all, however the seed is sown and it can only but florish.
Such a beautiful blog, Katerina, you are sharing about a very different model for the care of people as they are approaching passing over. What a beautiful support it is to know that this will be available when that time comes for me. This is a model that needs to be put into place all over the world, but the key factor is the true level of care that is taken. “Care is in the essence of how we live, and in the essence of how we are with those who need our support, be it in illness, a passing problem or in the closing years of our lives.” It is wonderful to know that those who will eventually be caring for me will be at the level that you have described, in the essence of how the carer lives.
Knowing that what is written here is true – there is The Way of The Livingness and loving age care is a reality – makes me live very settled and sound.
Great blog presenting that love and care is a natural choice to make in how we relate to others when we choose it for ourselves. I relate to this choice as being at the heart of true religion in which we honour and nurture the divine within us and within others. This natural way of being, The Way of The Livingness, has been reflected in my own personal experience caring for an elderly lady, where no matter what choices she makes, I can still tend to her with the knowing and trusting of who she truly is. The steady commitment to being loving and caring ultimately gets through and there are more and more moments of acceptance and joy of connection between us, which is something to be cherished and celebrated as someone’s life is coming to an end.
The way we prepare ourselves in our later years before passing over is part of being responsible for it not only allows us the dignity and love that we deserve but also sets the quality for our next life when we reincarnate.
I have a huge amount of respect and care for the older community. It would seem at times we are all to quick to put people on the ‘scrapheap’ and from there you see a decline in this around them. We are all people no matter the age and just because of an age shouldn’t be the reason on how you treat a person. The experience and wisdom shared from people older than us can be huge and most of the time they have walked similar steps before. We can all learn from each other, no matter age, colour, race or religion we are all people. I find it amazing we ‘retire’ people like we do and virtually try and pretend they are on another planet. I take a lot of wisdom from people older than me and it has supported me in every way.
Well expressed Ray, I have also found the wisdom and sharing from people older than me has been so beautiful to behold and hear, and the difference this can make in anyones’ life is profound. And equally the sharing of the younger people to the older people also has its merits as there are so many new things these days and so quickly, and it appears the younger ones can understand much quicker – so there is a mutual benefit in sharing and respecting and caring for each other.
There is a lucrative industry that takes care of something thought as a problem but that does not really care for the person it takes supposedly care of. There is no way this fact is not be felt by those using its services. Compare that imprint with something that is not conceived of as a problem and that brings love to the one ending the journey. Just compare both final breaths and its impact for the ensuing journey.
‘Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.’ Society needs to be built on these principles – respect for ourselves and respect for others, and love as a way of life.
There is a great lack of care with the way in which many old people are treated in todays society. Just because soemone gets older, should not mean that it is ok to treat them disrespectfully, or to dishonour them in anyway. What you are showing here is that there is another way to look after our aged, and what a beautiful and honouring way it is.
“..Imagine living every day with the knowing that as you enter the twilight years of your life you will be cherished and cared for to the bone, by a community that will be there for you and with you until your parting breath…” This is not utopia, but a very real possibility for the nursing homes of the future, as people are calling for this style of aged care for their family elders and for themselves. What a beautiful way to go surrounded with love.
Growing up, I heard people say things along the lines of ‘your kids will look after you in old age’ and sometimes felt that was why people had kids, so they would have someone to care for them in old age. But this isn’t always possible for various reasons and it places a lot of responsibility on the adult children who have their own lives and families. What the Way of the Livingness offers is where communities take are of the elderly, not just the blood family. In a similar way to communities helping to raise children to support parents who are often struggling juggling work and family.
We have over the years pulled away from our responsibility in caring for our elderly population and this is shown in how many are dying lonely, alone and without the true care and support of brotherhood. To make true change it would be great to start with the younger generations through our education system bringing an awareness to our later years,, and the responsibility we have in how we live this life will affect not only present life but our lives to come.
When we are babies we are not capable of completely looking after ourselves. We are very fragile, vulnerable and dependent on others. And most of us get a lot of care, love and attention. It is not questioned that this is the level of care that children need. Why is it any different at the other end of life? Why do we not take it as a given that this is the level of care and respect our elderly deserve also?
We all deserve love, care and honouring, and this starts with allowing this for self first, then we can share this with other people. When we have this as a foundation, we will be supported with grace and tender care at times in our life when we need this, like when we are older and coming to the end of this life.
Passing over is a significant part of life and yet very few want to consider it for themselves let alone talk about it. We see news stories of how our elderly are often mistreated in homes and have very little engagement with life outside. Do we ask how we want to spend our later years? I feel one reason the subject is taboo is because children feel burdened by the thought of looking after their elderly parents, and the parents can feel that. What you describe Katerina is a whole new way of looking at life and how we look after ourselves and each other right to the end of this life.
Beautiful Katerina such a great reflection of true caring and what it means to us at all times of our life and how this becomes part of our elder years and passing over also.” Care is in the essence of how we live, and in the essence of how we are with those who need our support, be it in illness, a passing problem or in the closing years of our lives.” This way of living is bringing about a radical rethink and reflection to the world much needed and so much more loving and deeply honouring of the richness and divineness we all are.
What a sound reflection to be cared for by those who truly understand & appreciate the importance of caring for themselves first and foremost.
We all deserve loving care and attention to our very last breath, to be inspired to be all of who we are and to be reminded that what we experience in our bodies is the results of our choices. This level of honest, truthful and genuine nursing and care is worth everything in the world and it doesn’t need to only come from trained nurses. We all can support by simply being there and tend to the basic needs we all need.
What you describe Katerina is the antidote the very opposite of what we are told old age will be. I love how The Way of The Livingness and what you present does not create a ‘happy place’ after years of toil and trouble, but advocates a life of love and nurturing no matter what your age. This way of living in equality, constantly, raises up every sector every job and so lifts aged cared as well. For when we live a life of joy, richness and vitality we would never accept a dreary death for ourselves or another.
How we live our lives counts right up until our final breath.
Supporting each other from young to old is key to true community and true brotherhood.
Why is it that we focus so much on the external things connected with getting older and moving towards our passing years, than we do about how much true care and loving attention we need and absolutely deserve. Holding the elderly in an equal and respectful manner, and making sure that all of their needs are met, doesn’t seem to be of that much importance these days, as they are almost like the forgotten generation. It seems such a waste as they have a huge amount of wisdom and living to share with us all.
This is a beautiful and needed sharing Katerina thank you for bringing true elderly care into the forefront of our lives not to be dismissed. All that you offer and the honouring of the elderly is so real and the lack of true care by us all for ourselves let alone each other is a very important part of our lives to be looked at and readdressed openly . The way of the livingness does just this and we are redefining old age and everything in our lives to bring us back to the beauty, oneness and love with each other naturally.
“Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.” How different our Care Homes would be if this was how everyone was treated, from the cleaning staff to the residents. Everyone deserves this level of true care, and it starts with how we take care of ourselves.
It seems crazy that one person rather than another deserves to be treated with dignity and love, especially depending on their age or whether they are still productive in life. We miss the opportunity to connect and share our true selves till the day we die when we shut out one generation over another.
This would be and is amazing to feel us returning to brotherhood, ‘Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to.’
Katrina what you share here is truly wonderful. It is thanks to your Livingness that I can appreciate that yes, love, dignity and respect are our birthrights. I had not realised I was under the belief that they were only the reserve of a few who had access to the reality of this by means I was not privy to. But I’m seeing the only barrier to them are barriers I create and actually I can live love, respect and dignity each day, all day.
Getting aged care right is one of the best things we can do as fellow humans.
“Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.” Gorgeous Katerina. We are born love and we die love whether we admit it or not . . . we are love though our behaviour would have us convinced otherwise as our behaviour is always not who we truly are.
Our current society is set up to pawn off the elderly in old people’s homes – we are no longer set up to support the elderly in a way that we used to with them living in our homes till their last days. This is a sad reality that we have created. Part of this is also due to the fact that many elderly are also living in a way that has given up and does not want to be part of society – the escalating numbers of dementia and severe mental and physical incapacity have led to full care being needed in an aged care facility. But if the elderly took responsibility (and those that are currently aging) took responsibility for how they aged, and then we added in the youth/the middle aged to take responsibility for being open to supporting as needed – this could possible offer an amazing answer to a growing problem of neglect on all levels. The real question is how willing are we all to do this?
It’s true that the healthcare system and palliative care are being capitalised more and more, so it’s important we bring back the incredible quality of care you spoke of in your blog and start to expose what doesn’t meet the standards of true care.
Katarina, you are an inspiration for me. This is another wonderful article written by you. Thank you.
The level of care we bring to ourselves, is the level of care we are ready to bring to others. The decline in care for each other and especially for those in need shows the neglect of an innate part that we have forgotten about in our pursuit for outer fame, success and recognition, which in the end just turn out to be crutches to make up for the lack and emptiness that we feel inside.
‘Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to’ – Katerina, you have nailed something shared by all Humanity whether it has been identified consciously or not. To live everyday in the glorious warmth of brotherhood is the future I now close to bring into the present.
This is something I cherish a lot about being student of “The Way of The Livingness”. It is not a be-nice-and-good-thing to take care for our elders as described. It is a natural impulse that comes with joy, because as students of “The Way of The Livingness” we learn step by step to truly care for ourselves first.
What do we make life about – people or everything else?
Why would we allow, or settle, for anything less than true care?
I have always felt that the way we treat our elders made no sense.
We(I am 65) are just entering another phase of life.
Living life develops a whole level of knowledge that you can not get any other way.
I will continue to serve humanity until my last breath.
Feeling the support that I am receiving from Universal Medicine is allowing me to let go of the tension I have felt in my body all my life.
Deep appreciation!!
Care, true care is the bedrock of any society. Starting with self-care and then radiating this care to all we meet.
When I consider the way we treat our older people I know we are perpetuating an attitude towards each other that is deeply dishonouring and uncaring. It also helps me to understand why the concept of growing old is so feared. There is a policy I would like to write that would simply be called, ‘Open arms – from birth to death’… a treatise on the way forward – respectful, inclusive and ageist breaking.
“for the vulnerability of the human body has nothing to fall back on and deeply rest in when there is no foundation of true care to hold it”
We all deserve to feel true care in our lives and for many this is absent a good deal of the time. When we do not have this foundation in our own lives it is impossible to provide this foundation for another whether they be old or young.
It all starts with truly knowing how to care for ourselves.
Being able to age with respect and dignity is something that we all would want, but not only that, what you are outlining here Katerina is that there is a group of people around the world who are caring and nurturing the aged in a way that is very outside of the norm. The caring comes from people that are not immediate family, but those who are part of a community, loved ones and true family.
“for the vulnerability of the human body has nothing to fall back on and deeply rest in when there is no foundation of true care to hold it.” What a powerful statement this is. It highlights the importance of building our own foundation for ourselves as well as appreciating the foundation that a community can build around us.
Aged care starts with young care starts with self-care – no matter which side of the care equation we sit in.
I am ever-thankful I reconnected to The Way of the Livingness through Universal Medicine. And I say ‘reconnected’ as this Way is not new – we’ve lived it before, and we all know it deeply. We are just so deeply enthralled by and mired in the world we have created that we have lost our natural Way.
As a student of The Way of the Livingness, I am looking forward to growing old with my extended family of friends. I know that I will be living in a way that supports me to my last breath. Living in a way where there is love, brotherhood and joy, seeing death as the end of one cycle and the beginning of the next.
As you say Katerina, “Respect and dignity are birthrights for all. . .So is love” but we cannot expect it from others, we need to first build it within our own bodies so there is a true foundation which we reflect to others so that they can then remember their birthright. The world has drifted so far away from this and we need people to be self-loving role models so others feel the value in stopping the momentum and returning to their natural self-loving way.
What a beautiful blog Katerina! We do aged care so differently with the Way of the Livingness. I have been part of a friends passing over and it was so beautiful to see all the love and care that was offered to her as you say from friends but from strangers too, everyone supporting in their own way because they want to and never because they have to or feel obliged to. No guilt trips, no drama, just a whole lot of support, love and joy. It has totally shifted the way i felt about growing old and passing over that is for sure.
Katerina, I can feel how far away the care industry is from offering true care, I have observed a lack of respect from care companies and carers, often due to visits being squeezed time-wise because of budgets or more work than there are carers; so carers are stretched, exhausted and often don’t provide the quality of care that the elderly deserve. ‘Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.’
This blog for me brings to light the true purpose of community – working together to support each other. The fact is no matter what age or status we are at, we can all benefit from working together. Ageing surrounded by people who want to help and support is very beautiful and shows that at heart we are all full of care for each other. It takes responsibility to live in this way and to put love first.
A nursing home is not a place you want to be in but I also see elderly struggling at home, not really coping, with multiple illnesses, doing their best to keep on going, out of fear and not knowing what to do and how to bring care into their lives and how to be with dying. As a society we are lost in how to support and care for those who are old, ill and close to death. The reflection of how we live with each other, no true connection with ourselves ending as the individual we think we are. And I fully agree with you Katerina, there is a different way of living with each other ‘ The Way of the Livingness’ where ‘Care is in the essence of how we live, and in the essence of how we are with those who need our support, be it in illness, a passing problem or in the closing years of our lives.
The fact is that from the beginning of our life right up to our last breath we deserve the greatest level of care, love and honouring, and likewise right to the end of our life we are responsible to live that level of care, love and honouring towards our fellow brothers and sisters. When those layers of hurt and protection are peeled back, we invariably find that this IS our most natural way to live, with love, joy, harmony, stillness and wisdom. How gorgeous would it be for us all to know this and experience this even while life is still prompting us to peel back and heal those layers. The Way of the Livingness is founded on such level of love, care, brotherhood, a wonderful reflection of the true future of mankind.
We all deserve to be cared for, irrespective of what age we are. The Way of the Livingness brings love and care back into life.
This is beautiful to read Katarina, The Way of the Livingness is definitely setting a new benchmark in offering true support and love to aged-care. Sadly society has turned a blind eye to how the elderly are treated, so conversations like these are very important for raising awareness and bringing true change to aged care and allowing them the care and dignity they truly deserve.
What an absolute blessing to be surrounded by people that are there to genuinely support you in the later part of our lives. With so much grace and tender care, not wanting anything back from it – simply there for support and caring others to a harmonious pass over. Who wouldn’t want this in their lives?
Katerina this is such an important beautiful way of life and the holding support and care is deeply felt . If we choose to live this way then it is natural to age gracefully with this same love and care into the whole process of death and dying also. Having a community supporting this is gold to our lives and is being brought into the light and true care made available and lived naturally in our communities is simply a way of being for all as we live this with each other naturally.
‘The vacant, abandoned look in the eyes of the elderly who pass by, as they shrink away from life long before they pass over, is an indictment of the lack of quality of life we have allowed to be acceptable.’ This is so true. We can bring this quality back and when we do the twinkle and sparkle comes back into their eyes and they feel what it is to truly live again.
Taking the last inbreath feeling held and loved is priceless. It helps to deeply surrender to what comes next. This Way is about setting new standards for everybody and a new understanding of the process of passing over.
I have worked in aged care homes and am horrified at the state of our elderly in these homes and the quality of care they receive. There is no way I am going to end up in one at the end of my life. I am so appreciative that I am a part of a religion: The Way of The Livingness, that truly values their elderly and that in my elder years I will have a community of people around me that will support and cherish me to right up until I pass over.
We focus on security, making sure we have enough money and that having enough money is the answer, but what about the quality of care in our later years. It is a reflection of the quality of life lived that we are allowing, but bringing this out into the open to discuss and reflect upon is what true family is all about.
“To live in the knowing that as we reach our parting years we will be held in the warmth and care we innately deserve gives us the freedom to live every day in the joy we are meant to live in”- This is so true and yet sadly often doesn’t happen in society, and amongst our nursing homes. What The Way of the Livingness is offering is true love and care as a way of living until the day you die- a right for all.
“Care is in the essence of how we live, and in the essence of how we are with those who need our support, be it in illness, passing problem, or in the closing years of our lives”. It is nearly impossible to give the true care, and support to the aged when aged care has been reduced to an industry with making money its top priority and it’s a sad fact that society has accepted this as how it is. Universal Medicine students show through honouring, respect, true loving care and support another way and the way of the future. True care begins with self and from there it is just natural for that to flow over into caring for those in need of our support, for love is indeed the essence of us all no matter who we are or where we come from.
“…We are born in the bundle of love we innately are…” and to have our last living breathing days surrounded with the same quality of love would be heaven on earth…
The end of a life is just as important as the beginning and so to have communities set up to care for the elderly feels very natural and so very needed. We would never consider leaving a young child home alone, isolated or neglected and yet this happens to our elderly.
Honouring the end of life in the way we celebrate the beginning is a brilliant way to break this cycle of neglect. Thank you, Sandra.
“Imagine living every day with the knowing that as you enter the twilight years of your life you will be cherished and cared for to the bone, by a community that will be there for you and with you until your parting breath.” this is how it should be for all of humanity.
Reading your blog I can feel how we as a society have accepted a way of living that is so far less than what we deserve and are worthy. How we are with our elderly is there a clear reflection of – do we really want to see what the results are of the way we live our life with so much focus on production and results and less on quality, true love and care?
Being part of The Way of The Livingness shows that when we do live a life of care the end result is also that of deep care for our elderly who also show the reflection of a life lived in care and love.
“To live in the knowing that as we reach our parting years we will be held in the warmth and care we innately deserve gives us the freedom to live every day in the joy we are meant to live in.” I hadn’t ever thought about this in this way before and yet it’s absolutely true. I am a Student of the Way of the Livingness, and the love and care I feel from my family – my true family which includes all those I am in relationship with – is profoundly and deeply supportive. It is a holding energy which I know will not let me fall from neglect or lack of care on their part.
Thank you Katrina for a really great blog, there is very little love and true care in the Aged Care sector to day, money being the main priority, the staff are often overwhelmed by the workload and the inability to spend the much needed time to truly care for those in their care. It is beautiful to know and experience what true care for the elderly is all about. Having been part of a team that gave true care to a person passing over, I look forward with joy knowing that when my time comes I will be held in the arms of brotherhood with loving care by students of the way of the livingness. We are so deeply blessed.
‘Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.’ Sadly we have strayed so far from these foundational principles in society that our education and government systems are all void of love. At best love is bought by those working in these systems, but at large the systems themselves require an overhaul to deliver the respect, dignity and love we all deserve.
Even simply reading the word glory in the same sentence as ‘aged care’ is pretty revolutionary.
It’s so important that the elderly are offered a marker of connection from their aged carers (be this their family, nurses, friends etc.) and in the environment they are cared in, as living closed off from others and feeling isolated is not the true way to celebrate the end of one’s life.
Students of The Way of The Livingness are definitely setting an awesome example not only in aged care but every industry they work in. Thanks Katerina
This blog came to mind the other day as a relative of mine passed away, surrounded by loving care and attention. I saw how this person, when I met them at first many years ago, was an angry shut-off person, whose eventual passing at that point was destined to be lonely and agitated. However, with care, love and respect given to them, this person was able to turn their life around, to build meaningful relationships that had the new buds of love being expressed. It was beautiful to see. And so when their passing came, we all felt a deep love for them and a grateful appreciation that this person had let us in and allowed us to express our love for them. Perhaps this is what makes our dying more simple and harmonious – when we allow others to be loving towards us.
I agree Katerina, that “It goes without saying” that the deep level of care that you write about ought to be naturally available for everyone at the end of their lives, but sadly today it is not, except for the students of The Way of The Livingness. There is a definite commercial feel to the majority of the care facilities I have come in contact with, where a profit appears to come before the well-being of those in their care. How can we put a price on the life of anyone, especially someone nearing the end of their life – as far as I am concerned, we can’t!
I love this blog, just in the picture you can feel the tender care being offered. The sense of community, of brotherhood that exists amongst the students of The Way of The Livingness, both in Australia and the UK (There are other countries, but these are the two I have experienced) is awesome, and it gives me the confidence to know that such care will be available for me in my later years.
This is so lovely Katerina – “Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to.” What other way could there possibly be if we have connected to this first, beautiful blog.
There is something amiss with how we treat our elderly, what is in place to support our elderly and how as a community we see the importance, or not, of our elderly and what they bring. You only need to talk with someone who is trying to arrange for their elderly parent/family to go into care or trying to even broach the subject, to know that there is so much stress surrounding this subject. Could this be because the elderly (and all of us) can feel the lack of true support and respect we have for ourselves in this part of our lives? Could it also be because we can feel how we have lived and how we have been in relationship with ourselves and others, and that this does not change when we require aged care? Great and needed topic to discuss Katerina.
To care and tend for each other is a natural part of being human and the atrocious situation in many nursing homes that I have experienced both personally and professionally is inhumane. This is not a separate thing to the atrocities we see all over the world in many other aspects of life -for example the violence still perpetrated on women and children. So a new way of being and living is essential. Everyone knows it and coming back to our natural quality of care in our own lives is obviously the way to plant the seeds for more widespread change.
What passes for aged care is (for the most part) in reality conducted by stressed and busy support workers who are on timelines that permit no true connection or care for the person in their charge. The entire process is about ensuring people get to meals on time, are bathed and toileted if needed and get the correct medication. Where is the love and the cherishing that is so needed?
It seems that self care is very difficult for many in our current society, a commitment and care for self is needed to ensure there is true care for another, what ever industry we are working in.
Katerina I am so pleased that you took the time to express in ” The Way of The Livingness and the Glory of Aged Care” the wonderful fact that as we grow older there will be love and support from a wonderful family. For me this spells a lack of fear around my later days, before passing from this life!
The Way of The Livingness is inspiring thousands and many more to live with grace, integrity, love and truth. It supports us to live in a way that encompasses brotherhood, true care, true love, and reignite our connection to ourselves and to God. The Way of The Livingness inspired me to dissolve my fears around aging and understand what it means to truly live a joyful life and how I can contribute back to my community. I no longer have to imagine what it would be like to live in a way that truly supports our elderly, cherish and care for them with love, I have seen this with my own eyes and feel hugely inspired by The Way of The Livingness in every way.
It might be just me but it would seem like I’m seeing more and more aged care facilities popping up around the place. I know they say as a generation we are getting older and so a blog like this is pretty apt. We can’t keep kicking people off the end of the pier when their use by date has expired. Everyone is important in any community, no matter the age and yes sure their role may change but the respect for the person shouldn’t. We all have a name and so we should use it more often. Learn peoples name and then say hello to them when you see them, I have found particularly in the elderly this is a true sign of respect. We are all going to the same place and so let’s make it know what we want it to be when we arrive.
We are born in the bundle of love we innately are, and it is our natural right to remain in that love until the end of our days and beyond. This line truly stands out for me at the moment Katerina, reminding me of this very fact as I can feel within me, it’s absolute truth and I take it with me in my day. Thank-you.
I’ve been a part of this within my community for one of our elders following her surgery. For several months, a group of us would take turns to call, visit, take meals for the week ahead, and do any odd jobs for her. She loved the support and care we provided, and equally we loved being able to provide the support to her.
The experiences elders currently have in retirement, nursing homes, and passing over definitely needs to be remodelled, but that is a whole community issue of everyone committing to self care, as it currently is in the Way of the Livingness.
I supported my mother to move into an aged care facility earlier this year. Like anywhere in life there are those that have a genuine love for my mum and those for whom work looks and feels like a chore. Our elderly are at the mercy of the system and the way in which the staff care and love themselves!
This is such a critical topic when we understand the increasing ageing population. Aged care is fast becoming one of the largest service industries. The quality of care in nursing homes is dependent on the Livingness of the carers and the management. Much needs to be done in supporting care staff so that they can bring their own value and self worth to their care of our elderly.
There is much to learn for both, the elder and the younger who support and care for them. It is a collaboration in expanding one´s understanding of life, we are literally in it together in the circle of life that all of us have and will pass through for many more lives.
I have observed the care and nurturing students have given other students in their final years and been blown away by the level of sensitivity and care. This all feels like something of a dream as we look around at the lack of loving support our private care homes provide and yet it is not a dream, it is indeed a way that many are now living, in family, in brotherhood.
The way of the livingess encompasses every aspect of life, and true care is one of them. When we truly care for ourselves it becomes natural to offer true care to others.
As I get older my inner strength is increasing in the wisdom and understanding that if I commit to life then the way I pass over will be a reflection of that fact. This is a loving responsibility that I have to myself and all those around me. At 63 I have seen many people pass-over and none with the grace and dignity that I have felt within the student body.
‘Imagine knowing that what is before you as you are close to parting from this life, is an ending that’s glorious, as you are sure tended by people who are your family through and through regardless of whether they’re a blood relation or not’ This is the true essence of care.’ Having an understanding of end-of-life and reincarnation, allows to surrender to the process of leaving the mortal body:, embrace death. To be held in the arms of a community that truly cares, as we do so is extra-ordinary, but could so easily be the norm. The Way of the Livingness’ model of brotherhood and aged care must be shared more widely with others.
Katerina great blog, learning to take care of ourselves and others as part of our everyday living is a beautiful way to live and pass over knowing and feeling what true love and care is.
Aged care is so undervalued by our society that the poorest paid people are looking after out elderly people. Many of them truly care but often come from personal situations themselves which are very stressful and I cannot understand how they can care for older people when they are not being cared for themselves in their own lives. It tis a situation which has been like this for so many years and there seems to be little interest from the powers that be to do anything about it.
Before The Way of The Livingness I never new what Care truly was, what Love truly was and what Family truly was. Thanks to Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon I have been able to feel and know that these are all encompassing and a choice away which is super inspiring and empowering. Making the choice to be the innate Love that we are and building relationships on this basis you get to feel how exquisite it really is and you don’t want anything else.
‘Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time.’ How have we all forgotten this amazing fact of life? While the lack of respect and dignity is rife across all aspects and ages of life, it’s particularly noticeable with the elderly. I’m a big supporter of reinstating these birthrights across the whole world.
There is something totally beautiful about the way the student body has come together to care for those who are passing – the fear that many have of dying alone, undignified or less than the dignity, respect and love you lived the rest of your life with. Care and respect to the last breath is an amazing foundation upon which to live your life and look after those in the final stages of theirs.
What has become a care system reflects how we care for older people within our society as a whole. We do not value those in their elder years and toward the end of life as we should and this is reflected in the state of the care system and value placed on this from the government at local and national levels. There are however many trying to make a difference or do the best they can but within a system which does not understand let alone allow for true care of our older people. It’s invaluable that a new example of this in action is now being presented through the Way of The Livingness.
Because of this article I can imagine taking my very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime I have felt what it is to live in brotherhood – this feels inspiring, brings purpose to my day and is glorious simply in the fact that there is no fear.
Universal Medicine and The Way of The Livingness are leading the way in the education and delivery of True Healthcare in every aspect, for the whole of Humanity – from the beginning to the end of our Lives, we each have the right to Live in wellness, vitality and be treated with the utmost Love and Respect.
A lot of people seem to be quite afraid of what will happen to them as they get very old and even those with funds available don’t know how to live that time as well as they would like. It will make a big difference if alternatives become available.
Stunning beautiful article Katerina. Those forming the group of The Way of the Livingness are pioneering and paving the way globally with true loving care for the elderly and for the step of passing over. I love the way you make this to the root cause of why we have vacant-eyed, abandoned elderly people – albeit abandoned to a so-called glamorous nursing home (or not!). Lack of true care for ourselves is how we end up as a sad elderly person, and is also how and why we don’t truly care for our elderly.
Reading this blog I get a sense that we rush through the stages in our life and don’t appreciate everything they bring, we live in a way that sees an end point and the way leading up to that gets fast forwarded. By not investing in end results we get the realisation that everything can be grand and glorious now.
Sad really that we need to imagine this, “Imagine living every day with the knowing that as you enter the twilight years of your life you will be cherished and cared for to the bone, by a community that will be there for you and with you until your parting breath.” From what I see and hear we put people on the scrap heap early and early. We need to care for people a whole lot more and in that I don’t mean save the world. I mean take care of people through taking care of ourselves in a way that support us to be there for others. At this time there is a lot of bodies around but not a lot of people in them taking care of what they do. We are almost like breathing robots at times when it comes to any type of care. We are walking into a swipe and dice society that we won’t even recognise in another few years and yet we will be lead to believe this is normal. Look behind in our history and more and more you can see we are going around in circles and just the names are changing. Truth in care for people, yes as a start.
‘Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to.’ Just gorgeous Katerina, and an absolute reality now that we have been shown the essence of true love and care in the teachings of Serge Benhayon.
Having worked in aged care facilities, I have seen the despair felt by many living in, or rather existing in an environment that keeps them alive but doesn’t offer true care or love. To have love and care to our dying breath is something we all deserve and can have.
When the world wakes up to what you describe Katerina, to the immense gift that support in our elder years is, everyone will want it.
We all want to be treated with love, care and respect whatever our age is. Sadly this so often is not the case in private care homes that focus on money first and people second. What you are describing in this blog is our natural way and yet this is not (in the main) the way we live but so easily can.
As I was reading your amazing blog Katerina, I was deeply appreciating and hugely thankful for The Way of The Livingness being available to us all. This way of living and caring for ourselves and our elderly as you’ve shared, I have not witnessed anywhere else. To cherish the elderly in our community as our own family, care and nurture them with respect, love and decency is hugely heart-warming for me to read, as I can feel this deep down is what we all want to live with, true brotherhood. People coming together as family to support each other, to freely express our love and to practice true care as our norm. This way of living is inspired by The Way of The Livingness, where I see many people are returning to brotherhood and choosing to be love.
It is beautiful to be a part of such community. This love, support and brotherhood is felt at all stages of life and not just for the elderly. I have been part of a cooking team when a new born arrives or when someone is ill. I also am part of a network who care for our children. School pick ups and drop offs are shared as are meals and weekends. I used to be a somewhat solitary hermit and life was much more difficult. There is a joy that is expressed when we care for each other and the love is palpable.
Thanks, Nikki. It is beautiful to feel what is possible, when we open our hearts to others.
I have recently had an operation which required care whilst I was at hospital and also some care while I arrived home. During this period I have witnessed loads and loads of medical people and community caring personnel who genuinely wanted to help and support and I have been quite moved by their level of dedication. Yet the depth of understanding about the level of care and support this blog speaks about is not what most people have in their reality so it is not what they are offering, I do not for one moment imagine it is because they would not want to, but I too did not have this level of care on my radar prior to being re-inspired by the Way of the Livingness. Also many were shockingly neglectful of caring for themselves so I imagine most of these lovely people will be burned out in a few years. This is all aside from the big businesses that are built on perpetuation lack of health and vitality. The Way of the Livingness is indeed offering something very special which is applicable to every single person.
This is a beautiful article and offering, Katerina. An invitation to really claim the fact that love is a quality we all know and can live from the moment we are born to the moment we pass over. The Way of the Livingness takes this fact and brings it to life, literally, so that we live it in all of our daily interactions. The cherishing of our elders is our privilege and responsibility.
The other day I had a conversation about homes for the elderly that shocked me. The person I was speaking with shared that a relative of her went into a private home where nurses tie up the elders at night and over-medicate them so ‘they do not cause problems’.
‘Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.’ Redefining the term ‘aged care’ with love…. This is a true role model of the deep love AND care we all deserve until our last breath and beyond.
‘Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.’ – So true, dignity is a quality that is more important than we are aware of.
It is glorious to know that we will be cared for based on love and respect up until our last breath; no pandering in sight but also no glitz or glamour as there is no interest in impressing anybody, just getting on with what needs to be done.
I love the picture with this blog, as it captures what you describe here, Katerina – that there can be joy and celebration in looking after the elderly, honouring life and the rich tapestry of experiences and learning that can be shared and benefit all. Universal Medicine is indeed turning things around in this respect, and it feels wonderful to know that I will be cared for in this way as I reach the end of this life – something to look forward to!
To see our elderly years as an important preparation for our next life rather than just the final forgettable chapter of one life is a revolution in how we view old age and how we view life itself.
Katerina the love you share in this article is not only revolutionary when it comes to Aged Care but deeply inspiring for everyone knowing that the care and respect one chooses to live during our life is supported until the last breath. It is a model that the world deeply needs based on my experience of the way “old peoples” homes are today.
We all deserve tender loving care, whatever our age but especially when we grow old and frail. It is a joy to know that there are ways we can look after our elder population without exploiting them. The way the Students of the Way of the Livingness come together to support friends and family members who are sick and/or dying is very inspirational, we can do so much when we all work together. The care of someone in need is never left to just one or two people to shoulder, when everyone joins in it becomes a simple part of one’s day and all delivered with the same level of care, love and respect.
Katerina, reading this article I can feel my body let go of tension and anxiousness, what you are sharing is very beautiful. I have first hand experience of elderly care in my community and it does not feel feel like true care – it often feels very functional and not loving or supportive, what you are sharing about true care feels amazing and very different and sets an example for how we can all be cared for and care for others.
We are re-starting the caring of the person preparing past over in the way we all came in… with love.
We need to deeply respect and care for ourselves and each other throughout all stages of life.
Yes, especially if it is the case that we come back – not from the dead, but in a new body.
Reading the many comments here and the conversation that has begun brings tears to my eyes — as someone has said, it’s a no brainer; who wouldn’t want to be cherished and cared for in their parting years. What we have in our communities as students forever learning a living Way that is so simple and so beautiful and loving is the answers humanity is searching for everywhere. From very early on in my life I could sense the dread of dying amongst the adults around me. Hanging over always, the fear of being alone and vulnerable, the heaviness of being a burden needing to ask for help never spoken of but always there. Ageing in our modern societies is underpinned with shame, the taboo of the vulnerable and the desperate longing to open up but not knowing how to.
What we have in our communities as students of a simple living Way, in The Way of The Livingness is the answer to all of this. Care, and the holding of another are universal qualities we all have and that we all can nurture. It is through true family that this happens, it is through the gorgeousness of letting our vulnerability be seen that the frozen barriers around our hearts melt away. And then there is nothing else but the immense space we have always been in that is filled with our love.
Very beautiful Katerina and your expression is filled with love for this so important part of all our lives at some time. Thank you for sharing this too, it moved me deeply also.
Growing old is thought to be something to be sad about, that life is ending and perhaps we didn’t live it how we really wanted to – thanks to the Way of The Livingness this isn’t the case anymore. It is possible to live a life of true quality right to the end.
Such an inspiring read. I had to read it again. It’s a brochure for the truth of aged care. Imagine reading this brochure when enquiring about aged cared. Such is the depth of love and what we all deserve not only in preparing for dying but the deep care we personally strive for in our every day. Signing up for this aged care has a responsibility and even though there is a financial exchange the real exchange is you are also required to deeply take care of yourself.
Great writing – I like how you interweave today’s reality with the way it can be, the truly natural way to be. It strikes me that we all look ahead to retirement as a chance to finally put our feet up and enjoy life. But by putting our feet up, so to speak, we’re checking out.
It is absolutely wonderful to know that there is a different way to caring for our elderly than has been the ‘accepted norm’ for far too long. How inspiring to consider that we could be deeply cared for at the end of our lives, in the same way that we are at the beginning.
I feel that the key is continuing that care in the middle of life too Sandra, and this is what will ensure it is present at the end.
The elderly have so much to offer us all, a wealth of lived experience. Staying engaged with life and in connection with others is so important as we age. Life at every age has something to offer us all.
Great article Katerina. Aged care is certainly big business. The quality of care given is going to be based on the true care and relationship we are living with ourselves. It is also our responsibility to live with this self-regard in life and as we age.
I have been witness to the way two members of The Way of the Livingness community have been cared for in their passing over. It has been extraordinary to observe and yet it feels very much the way things should be and have been in the past. It is very inspiring, seeing the community pulling together. The amount of love and care that is willingly offered is beautiful to see and the effect this has on the people passing over is phenomenal. I am sure that not so many people would dread passing over if they knew this was the way they would end their days.
The privatisation of nursing homes has offered more choice for people but in most cases has significantly reduced the quality of care. When the motivation behind providing a service is about money, the coldness is always there no matter how it is dressed up or how dedicated the staff may be. Cost cutting and short cuts are everywhere. I know that the staff are expected to keep to an unrealistic time table, being allocated certain number of minutes per task eg. 8 minutes for each shower. The lack of care of the residents flows onto the staff, who end up feeling burnt out and resentful.
I will never forget my first experience of a nursing home as a first year nursing student. I was shocked by how given up the residents felt, as though they were in limbo waiting for death, rather than living out life to the end. It was the vacant look in their eyes that got me the most. It certainly didn’t make me ever want to end up in one in my later years!
Alas, Fiona, in many cases people are giving up way before the nursing home, I have met many people who are counting down the years until they can retire… but what if what awaits them when they retire is the same quality they have lived leading up to it?
I love the fact you bring the responsibility of this care to each and every one of us… how do we truly care for ourselves as this will be reflected in how we care for every other person we meet.
A very inspiring read Katerina… that our elders can be respected, honoured and pass over with grace and dignity – and also presenting the part we all have to play in this process too… an equal responsibility for all of us.
Every single person deserves true care from the time they are born, until their very last breath. The Way of the Livingness offers a way of living where this is possible and is happening across all corners of the globe. The Way of the Livingness is The Way of the future, living and dying with love.
I have to say I am continually inspired by the elders in this community of people. Service to the community with a capital S is all I see. No sense of retiring to take a long holiday. Committed to the wellbeing of all, whilst deeply caring for themselves. This is certainly how I want to grow old, in the joy of working and being committed to life and people whilst being respectful and honouring of my own body. This will be the way forward in aged care.
Yes, Jennifer, love does not cease no matter what age we are, so why not love til our last breath and share everything we are with the world.
That’s it – love til your last breath and bring love in again with your first breath. 🙂
We’ve organised our age-care so well in elderly homes under the illusion that this is true care and ‘good’ for our elderly. Yet, it is rubbing us from responsibility, leaving everything up to the staff. It might be efficient, but it definitely lacks true love, care and nurturing. Yet, that is what we crave for, don’t we. We’ve taken away that what we love most… True caring for each other. When we’ve got our hearts open this is the most natural thing to do. And this is simply what The Way of The Livingness is all about. Taking so much care of ourselves by nurturing our body in order to be able to love to the bone and do whatever needs to be done. Together. In union. Natural. Harmonious.
We are All worthy of living our whole lives with grace and dignity, connection and love. Breathing our last breath will be part of the rhythm and flow we have lived.
“Breathing our last breath will be part of the rhythm and flow we have lived.” – This makes it crystal clear how important our rhythm is in our daily life. I notice when I am out of rhythm, my breath is out, the flow has stopped, everything becomes difficult. The gentle breath meditation as shown to us by Serge Benhayon can support us to reconnect and breathe, step into our rhythm again and the flow can start again too.
It is vital that we live in a way that allows this support to be there in our lives, whichever stage we are in. We are particularly vulnerable at either end of the scale and there is much to be developed for our aged care. It is awesome to know that people are really wanting to make this stage as vital and enriched as any other stage.
Far from being an unfortunate part tacked on to the end of life, old age can be a celebration and commemoration of everything that is true, of all we have chosen. If we see our life)s) as a return to Love not a descent to the ground then our whole perspective on life turns around. Who knew death could be so integral to life? For the the fact is we are all deserving of this care you describe Katerina, till our last breath.
Beautifully said Joseph. I love this blog and also it highlights to me how far we are from living with true care for ourselves and our elderly as a society. It is with massive appreciation that we are blessed with The Way of The Livingness showing us the way to truly care and to continue our return to love no matter what age we are or where we are, if we are able to deepened our love as we age till our last breath, imagine what we are offering back to our families, community and our world. LOVE
“The Way of The Livingness is re-defining what has been reduced today to a lucrative industry by the private health-care market, which is capitalising on how as a society we treat and regard our elderly and ultimately, ourselves.” Yes, The Way of The Livingness is re-defining the meaning of care, which is spotlighting just how far we have travelled away from true care of others and ourselves. In a way of life that is always on the go, fast paced and rushed, care and self-care are put onto the back burner. The Way of The Livingness is showing us how to reintroduce true care back into our daily lives.
I remember working in a rest home when I was growing up and feeling the coldness, sorrow and lack of care and most of all the lack of understanding and respect had for the people living there. I remember the feeling of ‘death’ and how much I would dread dying in a place like that myself. I knew there was a true way and that love had to be somewhere. I thought it was in many things including the giving of yourself for service of others at your own expense. I now realise The Way of The Livingness IS THE WAY. And in my experience, it is the ONLY True way.
We don’t talk about aged care enough and how there is a different way to do this. The Way Of The Livingness is. They are starting to say ‘we have a choice no matter what life stage we are at’. Society plans so much for a baby or a wedding but not for age or dying until it creeps up on us. But what an opportunity to care and support people in a way that supports them and everyone around them. The way we pass over sets a footprint for how we come back into the world, so to do this with love, surrounded by love, is such a healing.
It is a sad fact that we don’t treat our elderly with the care they deserve, completely reflective of the care we have for ourselves. And that’s where it starts, the care we have for ourselves, extending out to all around us, which is true love. This care will change how we end our lives and will give us the opportunity to evolve more in our lifetime, back to the true love and connection that is there within.
The Way of The Livingness has been a huge support in knowing that when my mother grows older and if she were ever to fall ill and need support, we would never be alone for there are so many people around us in the community willing to support and also advise on the process of passing
Beautifully said – the responsibility and care taken to plan for the inevitable end of life everyone will face is something I deeply cherish about The Way of The livingness – for me to know that as I grow up and get older, I will be supported from every angle at every stage – I am currently supported though my education and work, then if I choose to have a family, when my mother passes over and eventually one day when my life too draws to a close, I know every step of the way I have support and true care.
It is indeed our right to pass away with deep care, dignity and connection. The Way of The Livingness understands that the end of a life is as equally important as any other stage of it and that evolution is not something that grinds to a halt simply because we have aged. “Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.”
Absolutely
Brilliant Katerina.
Well claimed, The Way Of The Livingness is bringing all to earth what we need to return to our essence of who we are. And that by virtue of this living broad to earth we are indeed able to offer true healing and support , by our living way, to our elderly, our everyone. So well said – the students of The Way of The Livingness are here inspired living a true way that helps humanity forth in a way of return.
We need to return to understand and embrace the power that is available for us all to live, in the cycle as we come to our passing over, and that the way we live today plays a huge part in the quality in which we move in this time of our lives.
Key stone – “…that the way we live today plays a huge part in the quality in which we move in this time of our lives.” So true Carola and so it will serve us to be aware of this and really check in how we are living today, what quality we move in any time of our lives.
Many elder people hate going to hospitals because they don’t feel cared for. Imagine spending your last years being somewhere where you don’t want to be. Being part of community means caring for elders as we all deserving to be cared for. It is sad so many people die feeling lonely and neglected.
We live in society where self-love and care are not considered core values to our health and well-being, and instead we live with a degree of lovelessness that has us dependent on a system that focuses only on band-aiding and relieving our ill-health. This is reflected through the increasing state of ill-health of our elderly and the lack of capacity they have to continue to fully engage with life. We then cast aside and devalue this generation and in doing so miss the opportunity to live alongside the power and wisdom of one who has walked and lived and learned through their life experiences.
“We are born in the bundle of love we innately are, and it is our natural right to remain in that love until the end of our days and beyond.” Beautifully said Katerina. It seems common sense but it is not the reality at the moment for everyone. It is absolutely something very important, just as important as cherishing our newborns is to also equally cherish our elderly. For me this feels like that we sometimes do not want to see the end result of a life lived as we do as a society reflected in the state of our elderly, that can make us sort of ignore them, but with embracing them with love, so too we can embrace our old choices, their consequences and with that make a change.
Thank you Katerina. In my experience attending to people who are dying is a joy and a great privilege as it is a very precious time of life . . . one to be shared, honoured and appreciated.
‘Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to’ – this is the essence of what our lives are about and to have the opportunity to build towards this with the awareness we have gained through the wisdom of ‘The Way of the Livingness’, we now know that this is indeed possible. We all have a responsibility to live this truth now. Very honest and truthful article – thank you Katerina.
Thank you for sharing the future lived again 🙂 it is such a delight to read this blog and knowing that there is the Way of the Livingness which is with us from the start till the end of one life and let us be in brotherhood again and always come back to it again in each and every life.
This discussion is long over due, thanks for bringing it to the open Katerina – is there ANYONE who does not want to receive true care when they are ageing? Doesn’t this concern absolutely all of us?
There is a stronger call than ever for palliative and elderly care, so it’s important we have conversations about the QUALITY of that care and how to create a truly loving and supportive environment for our elders.
Having looked at homes for my father to move into was a confronting experience, we went to two places and said “I can’t let you live in one of these places”. Dad somewhat relieved said “thank god I thought it was just me.” Thank you to the Way of the Livingness for showing me the options that are available and think outside of the square and help me to speak out and know what is true.
I could feel your appreciation for our elders in this piece Katerina and the joy you share about The Way of the Livingness is inspiring and contagious!
It is our natural way to have the love we are, expressed and lived in every phase of our lives. Anything less than this is minimising who we are – how I know that one. I have/we have a long way to go as humanity to rid ourselves of the barriers that keep us oh so separate, particularly in our Aged Care homes.
Yes so true, however there is the possibility for change on the horizon as this blog shows. It will take time and much work, yet the light is on and the work has started, thanks to Universal Medicine and all that Serge Benhayon has offered and presented to support us in connecting with each other, and presenting so many different ways for us to see that separateness is an illusion we can cut through.
Katerina, what you are talking about here is really common respect and appreciation for our elderly and the contribution they have given to their community. Surely we can lovingly look after and care for them and give them the dignity and honour they deserve, and not just support them to see out the end of their days, most of the time feeling alone and isolated. My heart filled with love when I read your description in asking us to imagine knowing that what is before you as you are close to parting from this life, is an ending that’s glorious, as you are surrounded by people who are your family through and through regardless of whether they’re a blood relation or not. Everyone wants that, and everyone deserves that and more.
The fact that re-incarnation is not a possibility but reality as presented by Serge Benhayon is crucial in understanding how society can be changed. We all see how much care is put in babies, young children. But they are already born with ill imprints from the previous life (lives) so even though efforts are made to love them no matter what, to heal them, to care (which is always helpful and beneficial)-often it is correction of previous incarnation. That’s why it is super important for us all to embrace The Way of The Livingness, care and love ourselves and others, establish a new NORMAL and one day we will be able not only to pass away knowingly but to incarnate knowingly too.
Yes, indeed aged care applies to every age as in fact we are all to some extent ageless as we come and go. Those that are not cared for and depart in such sad ways, with dementia etc will be our next generation of youth and one wonders what state they will come back in. We need to deeply respect and care for ourselves and each other throughout the cycle.
True family. True brotherhood.
When we are re-introduced to true care, we are given the greatest gift to begin to re-imprint our lives with this fundamental quality and ethos, so that as we approach the end of our lives we carry in our bodies a knowing of what it means to be care for ourselves, to care for others and to be cared for by another and thereby establish a new bench mark of care for the elderly. When we have re-connected to this innate knowing within us, caring tenderly for everyone feels completely natural. How can caring for our elderly turn into a profit making business? Surely its our natural responsibility to ensure that those people who have raised us in what ever capacity deserve the right to be cared for in return when they become as fragile and vulnerable as we once were at the start of our lives.
This is a powerful blog, Katerina, a testament to the deep level of love for humanity being lived as an example by students of The Way of The Livingness. What more could anyone ask for than for to be cared for in this way during the process of ageing and passing over?
Katerina, I love this article, I work part time in the care industry and it is very shocking how little true care there is for the elderly, there is a lack of respect and care for people, it is industry that is very short staffed because pay is so low and there are often no contracts for staff so no job security and visits are often too short for what is needed. Care staff often feel unvalued, so it is great to read that there is another way and that we do not need to end our lives without being truly cared for.
“Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to.” While this is not true for the majority of our elderly population at the moment, it is something we can all begin to aspire to bring about. So many elderly people are living in isolation just waiting to die, we need to be able to offer our elderly a true reflection of living in old age, offering an opportunity to know what love and brotherhood feel like so that in their next life they have this awareness to return to.
Often the word care has come to represent the system of providing for a person’s basic needs and requirements according to their wishes as much as possible but this falls far short of supporting their true wellbeing in every way. Restoring the true meaning of care is greatly needed in health and social care and will be to the benefit of us all in society.
Well said, Michael – care can mean so many different things to different people. The first step to truly caring for others is to care for ourselves.
“Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to.” This is truly a glorious prospect to know and to know that this opportunity is being increasingly established for more and more people as The Way of The Livingness becomes increasingly established
It is only when we become aware that life is lived in cycles and never a straight line that we truly begin to see that the quality we depart with in one life is the same quality that we will be born with in the next.
Beautifully said Katerina. Our entrances and exists to life are pivotal points imbued with the quality of what has been lived between and prior to these points in time. The body may wither but the Soul never dies and so it is this light that is to be nurtured no matter the age of the vehicle (body) through which it expresses through. As students of the Way of the Livingness, we are whole-heartedly committed in remaining true to the love that we are and seeing that this love and care extends to all of humanity, as we all know by the current rates of illness and disease and wars that plague our planet the way we are currently existing as a global society is far from the truth of who we are. Each and every person that walks upon this earth deserves to be treated with respect and dignity, no matter the choices they have made and the life/lives they have lived thus far. We are all the equal Sons of God, no different to the bundle of love we were the day we were born and as such we need to treat each other so in order to return to our very natural harmonious state of being.
Yes!☝????To paraphrase, we may age and grow old but the Soul never does – choosing to let our Soul lead us in life leads to a purposeful, loving and harmonious life.
‘Care’ of the elderly today reflects the dehumanised world we live in. We don’t have to cite examples of war and violence on streets and in communities. Go into all but a few care homes and you will see and feel how normal it has become to treat our elderly with little or no true love. It is the normality of this low level of care built on standards legitimised by state agencies that is frightening. The word ‘care’ has become bastardised, because in truth what we are witnessing is not care homes but holding camps before death. Many care home owners are motivated by profit and not a desire to provide a loving, nurturing and tender homes for older people facing the last years of their lives..
Regardless of our age, we are still in essence the same being. Our physicality does not define who we are yet it is by taking care of and loving our bodies through the way we live, that we build a body of Love through which we can express who we are in full, at any time of our lives.
The Way of The Livingness brings back to us a way of living that is respectful to the glorious beings we are and by Universal Law deserve to live. It feels so natural to be taken care fore, but is rarely reflected in our nowadays world. This to me means that we have walked away from a way of being that we belong to and the choice to do so has been completely by our individual selves. That said, we can choose to return to that way of living, to the Way of The Livingness, that brings back the dignity and care in our lives we deserve to live in any phase of our lives.
In a world that can appear and feel so cold, it is heart-warming to imagine a world that puts people, and caring for them with the love they deserve, first. This is a future worth working towards. The true aged care lead by The Way of The Livingness allows getting old and dying to be a truly beautiful rather than dreaded experience.
I recently had exposure to a nursing home and found it to be one of the most loveless environments that I have ever been in. There was a palpable vacancy in the residents, the staff, the food, the care and the air that was being breathed. The place was despondency, apathy and lack of hope all rolled into one. Knowing that the energy that we pass over in, has a huge bearing on the energy that we are then re-born in, this kind of all too familiar story is nothing short of appalling.
Perhaps we should put nurseries in old people’s homes to remind the elderly how they once were and how they can still be.
Yes, imagine having that care, love and support you describe Katerina. But what if we need not actually wait till old age to experience this? What if in opening up to caring for others and ourselves we can live this right now today? I know I have started to feel this deep within and begun to realise I am continually supported by everyone around me to be awesome, through conversations issues incidents and hugs- and wow this feels so loving.
For an elder to be surrounded by the quality of deep love and an imprint of deepest care, is an imprint that lives on with the person even when they pass over. And if one has the consideration of reincarnation, then this loving lived imprint will be familiar at the start of the next life.
Katerina whilst reading your article about how the process of dying and indeed death can be, I felt such a warm holding in my body and knew that this is the feeling that I would have in my body if I truly knew that I would be held in love until my dying breath and beyond.
That *is* the way to die.
Beautiful said Katerina. This true care, love and respect is how we should treat ourselves and each other from pre conception through to departure!
“Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to” – this is so beautiful to read Katerina, so beautiful to feel the possibility of this, and it being the ultimate future of all aged-care homes.
Great topic to write on Katerina, and yes what a stark reflection ‘vacancy in the eyes/lack of presence’ is to receive at the end of one’s life to reflect to a degree how life was/its quality, and how that may then influence the next life. It goes without saying the presence of true care, dignity and respect is completely essential and vital for those in their parting years.
Beautiful Katerina. The Way of the Livingness is turning around how we view life including how we prepare for death. Growing old use to be something that I dreaded, but since being a student of The Way of the Livingness, I am now embracing looking towards the elder years that are to come with a full knowing that I will be immersed in brotherhood and love with full support from family and community until my last breath.
In forty years from now, pick me pick me……
As I mentioned on a comment above, I’m actually nervous about the idea of looking after my parents as they age. For two reasons. One is that I clearly haven’t accepted the fact that they are in fact ageing and two because their life choices are affecting their health and I’m reacting to that as I know it doesn’t have to be that way, but again, I’m having difficulty accepting their choices. HA!! oh boy, so much for me to work on so that I can age more graciously!!
There is so much fear related to dying in particular the talk that surrounds aged care and living in a nursing home. What has been shared here is the possibility of another way that brings the community together and respects all the members as they make their transition from this life. The Way of the Livingness highlights the quality of care that is there when we choose to take responsibility for all the phases of ageing.
Its so true that elderly care has been treated as another lucrative big business, which is why it is so important to offer a different way of approaching later life care, to show up that there needn’t be this approach, of dread and fear, and the huge financial burden that so many face. What a beautiful offering it is that the Way of the Livingness represents, that growing old is not something to worry about but that the love and care will be with you until the end of this life.
Stephen, your comment made me think about how, as children or grandchildren, we might play a part in this – moving our elders into a care home to clear space in our lives. True care is a responsibility we all have regardless of age.
I was blown away reading this Katerina by the love and care that our elderly can and should be receiving… yet that was just because the norm is so very different to this right now. In our bodies we all know that this way of aged care is not only what is desperately needed but is totally natural and normal.
I still remember the smells, wretched looks, vacant expressions and lack of connection that I saw while helping out at an aged care facility during my Christmas break when I was 15. My mother encouraged me to do it and it was an eye opening experience… I must say I was scared at times from the sad and anguished cry’s I could hear and the pleading looks from some elderly that required being strapped to their beds because of dementia.
I can feel that The Way of the Livingness comes with an understanding that supports the elderly in where they are at and the care provided, the staff and the friends and family who visit. This is definitely what I will be signing up for at this stage in my life!
The Glory of Aged Care – how beautiful this sounds. It is so sad that in our world today Aged Care is rarely thought of or spoken of as being glorious in any way, shape or form. Your article is absolutely gorgeous Katerina and very much needed and deeply appreciated.
The quality of the life we live is the quality that we die with. Students of the Way of the Livingness are endeavouring to establish a way of life that is self-loving and nurturing which brings an awareness and a loving quality to everything that is done. If we live this way we ensure that we will pass over in that quality.
When a baby is born we swoon and coo, swaddled and nurture, unfortunately we don’t get the same attention when we are at the end of life. I’m realising the responsibility I have in living in my fullness right to the end and have put in place a shared communal living arrangement to support myself and others to the final curtain. . This is not only practical but self loving, to put in place the quality in which to support our livingness right to our passing over.
A stunning blog Katerina I felt like I was being held in a deep and gentle love whilst reading. Yes this is our natural birthright ‘We are born in the bundle of love we innately are, and it is our natural right to remain in that love until the end of our days and beyond.’ The Way of the Livingness proves that when we truly care and love ourselves we can then equally do the same for another.
A beautiful blog Katerina, the love and care that you write of ‘The Way of The Livingness’ is felt in every word you have written on the page. Universal Medicine students are re-imprinting these qualities the world over to be felt and enjoyed by all.
Through practicing and living self-care and self-love we come to realise that every aspect of our lives has great value, not only for ourselves but also to share with others. The more we connect to our Soul through the way we live the more we bring the quality of honor and respect to all, in all age groups as we know and understand that in essence we are all brothers and sisters. When we come to live in this way we discover that there is great magic that is available for us all to live through all our ages.
Living in the “full embrace of ourselves” allows us to surrender to the dying process and pass over with no regrets, no fear and full of love. To do this however, we need to establish a consistent rhythm of self-care and honouring of ourselves and others which lays a solid foundation that supports us through the latter years.
Thank you Katerina for highlighting so beautifully what many may consider but a dream, is in fact a living reality for many others. The Way of The Livingness offers all the opportunity to return to living in a way that brings deep love and care to the lives we live. This quality of living not only live within our immediate families and friends but extends out to touch and connect to the hearts and lives of all. True love has no boundaries, no measure or no limits and wherever there is Love, care naturally follows.
Katerina, I love how you express so passionately the Glory of aged care and that there is a way to truly care for the aged that restores
respect, dignity and love to the ageing and dying process. The Way of the Livingness is a way of life that redefines aged care and reminds us of the true purpose of the elder in the community.
What a lovely refreshing take on aged care Katerina. Often it is not talked with such love, normally there is guilt, obligation, and resentment and the love that is underneath cannot come through with these blockages in the way. Care for yourself is paramount to caring for others, unless you live with care you cannot truly offer it.
Everyone deserves and is craving this level of care. As a child when I travelled to Asia I enjoyed observing the role that the elderly had in the community- they were held with regard and cared for. It is sad that we are moving away from this and that many people spend their elderly years feeling quite isolated and unseen. I do love the level of care people are receiving in your writing above.
Just yesterday I heard someone say: ‘Old people need a mother.’ I am not sure about the term mother as old people are no children and shouldn´t be treated as such but mother as synonym for loving care surely serves. Life has several stages or phases and all need their particular focus and support. When it comes to the last one where we prepare for passing over we need the specific understanding and assistance by those around us with everyone knowing what it is all about and what is going to come. The end of life is the preparation for what comes next, evolution never takes a break.
The care of our elderly is in deed a sorry affair and is functional at best for all concerned from the carers, to the family members, to the elderly themselves – all just struggle through to cope the best they can. The Way of The Livingness has set a new standard for how to look after the sick and dying, and the elderly.
First and foremost are we living in a world that is constantly teaching us to be more loving and caring. So that we’ve ended up in a society with very poor standards of elderly care reflects the way we are with ourselves. Loving and caring is beautiful and gorgeous. Life doesn’t end with ageing, life doesn’t end when passing over, in fact life never ends. Life in a certain body ends, but there will be a new body – over and over again until we (all) get it. How beautiful and touching would it be to support elderly in their last years before passing over with the full dedication, love and care in order to support them to reconnect back to themselves. Passing over surrendered and prepared for their next life. That would give so much purpose. To every one involved. Ever imagined the joy that comes with this?
This is brilliant and so so true. Working in age care I have seen the lack of warmth, care, love, brotherhood and continued self growth and evolution in this stage of life. I see staff who do care deeply, but don’t know how to show it, express it and action it. The inability to truly bring care, love and respect to this industry can be because of the set up and red tape of the system. It’s also because of a lack of loving true care and connection by the care staff, often wanting to and knowing how but not having the will power or capacity to do so because of their own life stressors, overwhelm and subsequent exhaustion
This is so poignant for me at the moment, Katerina, as my family and I are needing to consider putting our mum into and aged care facility for respite care. The care we are seeking for her at this very special time in her life is just as you have described and is the care that I can feel so deeply that she needs.
Anne I remember when the decision about aged care with my grandparents was being made, the options are limited and no matter how glossy the brochures of care facilities what Katerina is describe is like nothing I’ve come across in that sector before. It feels like the level of warmth, respect, dignity and love that is truly supportive throughout our life and espeically towards our passing.
It is easy to support others in this loving and supportive way when everyone works together in a team and it just becomes a way of life that is natural and not a chore as students of The Way of The Livingness are showing. Thank you Katerina for staring this conversation.
Yes, Julie, if it was just a normal part of our community activity to make sure the elderly were cared for and looked after, it would not need to be such an issue. It is indeed remarkable that we collectively neglect individuals as they age and lose capacity.
What an all-encompassing beholding of caring for the elders you have described… The Way it should be for taking take of our elders, as in time, the cycle of life brings everyone to their elder years.
“We go about our lives in the knowing that true care underpins everything, and that it’s in this full embrace of ourselves that we then surround ourselves with love and true family until our dying breath.” This is exactly how growing old ought to be.
It is immensely important to be ‘loved to the bone’ all through our lives, but especially at the times when we are most vulnerable, especially when very young and very old. The Way of the Livingness has confirmed for me that death, like birth, is an important passage that is to be honoured by us all.
Very beautiful Katerina and a subject that is very much in the thoughts of those growing older. As you expressed so beautifully – we arrived in a bundle of love and this is how it is meant to be when we leave but sadly this is not always the case. Much is to change and thankfully ‘The Way of the Livingness’ is changing the way it has been.
Feeling lonely and invisible in society is a huge issue for elder people, the health care systems can not cope with the increased ageing population.. it only makes sense to treat our elders how we all would loved to be treated as we age, with respect and tremendous care.
There is a lot to appreciate about older people, they have huge experience that younger generations can learn from and be inspired by. We miss out on a lot if we don’t cherish them.
This is a great conversation to be having – what has happened to age-old qualities of Love, Integrity and Respect? They are our birthright to have every moment of our lives.
We do not lessen in grandeur nor capacity to Love with age. Let us hold our elders in the Love they are and deserve in the same way that they have held us from young.
I am blown away by the beauty of what you express Katerina. I have seen people I love deteriorate in very difficult circumstances in the absence of the care you describe here and it is devastating to watch. The way we die is a reflection of the way we live and the connections we have built throughout our life. The way that is lived by students of the Ageless Wisdom is truly remarkable and so it makes sense that the way we die is equally amazing.
I look forward to growing old and to being cared for by those who know love and care as their way of life. I also look forward to caring for others in this way too. The Way of the Livingness is the way humanity knows is true but is not living because we are so caught up in surviving, protecting ourselves in a world that does not truly value communities founded on brotherhood and equality.
This is ‘gold’ Katerina. Documentation of The Way of The Livingness is one of the ways in which we will share and confirm that there is ‘another way’ to live and be in the ‘love’ that most of us came into this life feeling and knowing…
“Imagine knowing that what is before you as you are close to parting from this life, is an ending that’s glorious, as you are surrounded by people who are your family through and through regardless of whether they’re a blood relation or not.”
Yes, Imagine! It is not only possible, it is already beginning to happen with our elderly. Each plays his/her part and it is ensured that no one is left behind.
If the philosophy and values in this blog were incorporated into the health industry as a whole, well… magic would simply happen.
Katrina what you’ve written here about the love, care and cherishing of our elderly is unheard of. This alone would make me want to sign up to The Way of the Livingness. For me your first paragraph absolutely nails it: ‘Imagine living every day with the knowing that as you enter the twilight years of your life you will be cherished and cared for to the bone, by a community that will be there for you and with you until your parting breath.’ How crazy that we dare not even hope for that!
I agree Meg, it is very beautiful the way The Way of the Livingness is bringing such a deep level of care to this part of peoples lives. It’s interesting how much of society avoids looking at this when it is something that we will all face…
“Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.”- I so agree Katerina. Fortunately, I can say that the care my mother received for 1 yr, in a nursing home in Frankston before she passed over, was on the whole of high standard of care, given the staff ratios and facilities available. But this is not the norm, from what I have seen in other nursing homes. And the management is where the problem lies- it is based on profit before people.
I have had the experience of visiting care homes for several years for various reasons, and although I see people being ‘cared for,’ the level of care has not been that which you are talking about here. “Imagine knowing that what is before you as you are close to parting from this life, is an ending that’s glorious, as you are surrounded by people who are your family through and through regardless of whether they’re a blood relation or not.” If this were to be implemented into our care homes, they would indeed be very different places.
“Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to.” The Way of the Livingness is showing the way forward in so many areas of life. A much-needed conversation to be had about caring for the elderly in our community.
This is something many worry about and l know in my own family history of nursing homes, the worry has always been that our loved ones will not receive the love and care we wish for them. It is time that the idea of the standard of love and care was lifted and it is also important to deeply appreciate those who work in nursing homes and those who care for the elderly at home.
How wonderful it is to know the love we are and the love we should be held in. The Way of The Livingness is changing the way we love and care for ourselves so that we know what true love and care is.
This is glorious Katerina. This is indeed the level of care that students of the Way of the Livingness approach every aspect of life including caring for elders. It is like second nature, as what could be more natural than caring for others in this world.
Re-imprinting the way we care for our elders is much needed and the students of the The Way of The Livingness are showing that there is a way that holds all in the deepest love and care until their last breath. I, for one, no longer fear what will happen to me in later years but know that I will carry on for as long as I can and then things will unfold to support me to pass over in due course. Previously I wasted lots of time fretting about what will happen in the future but I can now focus on living fully in the present and being of true service every day.
‘We go about our lives in the knowing that true care underpins everything, and that it’s in this full embrace of ourselves that we then surround ourselves with love and true family until our dying breath.’ – True age care is a forgotten quality in our society and it has turned into big business for private companies – The Way of the Livingness brings a new quality to this area, that will completely revolutionize what age care is about.
Whilst I was reading your first paragraph Katerina I felt my whole body drop into a huge feeling of relief with the thought of being cherished and nurtured in my old age and surrounded by people I loved and trusted. How many of us must carry around a feeling of unconscious tension with concerns about what will happen to us when we are elderly. And no, I don’t believe it is a pipe dream at all, and through the Way of the Livingness we will reflect to the world how aged care can be oh so different once we begin to truly love, nurture and appreciate others through first doing this for ourselves. Thank you for an inspiring blog.
Thank you Katerina for expressing what is so close to my heart. It feels as though we treat people coming into this world with such deep care and tenderness and yet at the time of passing over we do not apply that same level of care and understanding. At both stages we are very vulnerable and in your words at the time of passing over ‘the human body has nothing to fall back on and deeply rest in when there is no foundation of true care to hold it’. In my own experience it feels like a great honour to be able to care for someone as they prepare to pass over – a time of intimacy that allows the person to leave this plane of life knowing there is nothing to fear – that it is not an end but part of the eternal cycle of life.
With this blog, I get a real sense of how we arrive in to this world need not be any different to how we leave it. It can all be one life, with that same quality carried through from birth to death – the essence of you nurtured and cherished and celebrated.
It is true Katerina, aged care has become a lucrative industry and the people that have invested in it are more interested in their profits than they are in the welfare and appreciation of our elderly population. To know that there is another way and that is based on The Way of the Livingness is truly welcome. Our elderly have a right to be honoured as they move towards their passing over, no different to how a young baby is honoured and cherished when born. Our elderly are withering away and dying not knowing that this is a glorious time of their life.
At 87 I am one of the elderly you speak of Katerina. About 2 years ago I went through a stage where life was not as I wished it to be and I was ready to give up. I expressed my feelings to a dear friend who is a fellow student of Universal Medicine and The Way of the Livingness as taught by Serge Benhayon. It was the best thing I could have done. What followed was the most wonderful loving care by a team of volunteer students from the Victorian Esoteric Group of UM who supported me though this time. They were never intrusive or imposing, making it clear that I was always to be the one in charge. Delicious health restoring food, healing sessions, counselling and dietary suggestions were organised for me. I am now back independently taking good care of myself and loving every moment of my life. I feel safe in the knowledge that, should the need arise, I shall be able to call upon my beautiful loving student family for any support I may need.
Yes, it has been amazing to watch what happened. Truly amazing.
Valerie this is extraordinary what you have shared for the ‘giving up’ is a common experience unfortunately. Have you written about this? I would love to hear more as I feel what you have to share would be greatly serving to others who may be going through a similar thing and how powerful a community truly can be.
That is a great demonstration of what is possible when we a) express how we are feeling and what is going on for us, and b) when there is a community of students of The Way of The Livingness who are willing to support and live true family, regardless of any blood or other lines we might have devised to separate one human being from another fellow human being.
The Way of The Livingness doesn’t leave any part out, everything is considered as equally important and this is beautiful and very healing to feel and even more to live.
Thank you Katerina for your beautiful sharing, and helping us as we age to feel confidence in the fact that there is going to be love , support ,joy and care in our lives . To know that we will still be valued for our input into this world and preparing for our departure as well as our return, through the Way of The Livingness.
It is so true that there is another way, and that is to value and hold each other in equalness no matter what our age or productivity.
The Way of the livingness really does show there is another way to life in true care and nurturing from birth to passing over in brotherhood and love . This is a very different picture to the care and isolation so many old people are living and passing over in and face at this time in their lives . What a beautiful way to live knowing the care and attention you will have and be part of and the joy and contentment this allows. What an important blog and understanding you share here Katerina for all humanity.
Katerina love what you share here, it is our birthright to feel the love we felt when we were born to also feel that love when we pass over. The Way of the Livingness is build that way of living through brotherhood and family, which is so inspiring and reassuring. As the reflection is shared and felt across the world there will be more caring and nursing homes based on the The Way of the Livingness.
The level of care that this particular community brings feels so natural and yet I must remind myself that natural yes, normal sadly not. But how cool is it that there is a system in place being lived and recorded on how life can be lived when people are put before need and profit and self gain.
We must not forget the love we were born with never leave us, but for so many, it is a forgotten relic of our past. When I shuffle off this mortal coil, to pass over in love will be a joy start to a new beginning!
Katerina Wow, I am speechless to feel the enormity of love and support that is naturally there and lived through the students of the Livingness. This is true aged care, this is the true way for our society to care, support and hold in love all others. It is really beautiful to read the power, love and strength in the way you’ve written this. It’s inspiring for me to read being a student of the Way of the Livingness as it’s not an aspect I’ve let myself consider as much as I could.
I agree Katerina that just because someone becomes too frail or too physically incapacitated to remain living in their own home, does not mean that the care and love and support offered to them should be less. Living with a group of elderly folk in your final years should be a joyful feeling of community not the cause of less care and love because you are just another number on a list. We do need to reconsider our aged care system and perhaps start with how we would like to be cared for in our later years.
We are born in a bundle of love, and we should die the same way. It was a great privelege for me to be with my Mum when she passed earlier this year and that was my one and only goal. A game we played to the last… to see just how much love we could share each day. It was gorgeous, fulfilling, and made total sense of her final days with us. I know deep within me that this has laid the best possible foundation for her next steps and the ongoing journey that awaits us all.
Very beautiful Simon. These times can be very precious indeed, especially if we are able to let go of our need.
Thank you Katerina for raising this topic, which is rarely discussed but should be widely so. The present system of the care of the elderly is generally so disrespectful and unloving. The approach you outline and practiced by the students of The Way of The Livingness is a leading example of a truly loving approach and fully appreciative of the significance of the moment.
“The vacant, abandoned look in the eyes of the elderly who pass by, as they shrink away from life long before they pass over, is an indictment of the lack of quality of life we have allowed to be acceptable.” This is accepted world wide…we have allowed the unacceptable. The care you describe should be an automatic response to life and yet it is sorely missing. The Way of The Livingness is showing the way back to the care and love that is our birthright and one day the potential we can all be living.
“The fact that it’s only from a foundation of true care that we can then enrich all aspects of our lives and be truly successful, has been forgotten.”
So true Katerina, we think we can fake it on all levels and get through life like that, but when we look at how we treat our elderly putting them away into fancy (or not so fancy) elderly homes, so we do not have to deal with them, it shows the disregard, lack of care and irresponsibility that we are ready to live with.
What a beautiful and supportive article Katerina. I love your line ‘We are born in the bundle of love we innately are, and it is our natural right to remain in that love until the end of our days and beyond’. As we Baby Boomers age, questions arise for governments about how best to care for us. How beautiful that The Way of The Livingness is always ahead of our needs, knowing what will be needed next, and providing loving support at such a vulnerable time of life. It will be such a turnaround for people to look forward to passing over, rather than fearing what lies ahead.
Respect, dignity , privacy, compassion, communication and true care are all qualities the elderly deserve when they are in the vulnerable stages of life. And as we as a society begin to realise that there is no escaping this part of the journey, and that we are all going to get older and vulnerable, so much more focus and attention will be put into elderly care especially during those final stages.
‘Imagine taking your very last breath in the knowing that in this lifetime you have felt what it is to live in brotherhood, and that it’s in the glorious warmth of brotherhood that you will one day again return to’. Gives me such warm, reassuring feeling to know that this is the way I will pass over being a student of The Way of The Livingness.
Absolutely glorious to be breathing our last breath knowing life has been a dedication to truth, love and living in brotherhood.
We are born in the bundle of love we innately are, and it is our natural right to remain in that love until the end of our days and beyond’ Some elderly care homes take great care to ensure the grounds of homes are well cared for and tendered with manicured lawns, beautiful flower gardens and shrubs. What matters is what lies within the walls and very often there is huge disparity between external and internal. The people you meet inside are not loved and nurtured like the plants outside that thrive. Resident sit with vacant eyes, in isolation, rarely communicated with except to carry out functional tasks. And this way of caring for older people has become the norm in too residential care homes for the elderly.
Thank you Katerina, your opening sentence alone brings warmth to the world and lets us feel that everybody is worth being “cherished and cared for to the bone” until their last breath. This is enormous as we have come so accustomed to fading away the older we get, and then ending up in a nursing home or home for the elderly to not be a nuisance to everybody else and simply await our death. No wonder so many of us fear dying and being dead and what a blessing that there is another way and that it is lived already, where we are “cherished and cared for to the bone” no matter the age we are.
Well said Katerina, I agree knowing that I will be looked after in my old age is very freeing. Having volunteered in nursing homes and palliative wards in hospitals it is a scary thought that I may end up like one of the people I have seen. However, the more responsibility and care I take for my life means the less likely I am to end up in such a ill state of health. But nevertheless knowing that I will be looked after with love and care until my last breath takes all pressure off thinking otherwise.
“the freedom to live every day in the joy we are meant to live in” The Way of The Livingness presents a way of living that brings joy from first breath to last breath and a responsibility to share the love that brings a freedom to know joy for all equally.
“Care is in the essence of how we live, and in the essence of how we are with those who need our support, be it in illness, a passing problem or in the closing years of our lives.” Words that need to be read again and again. This whole blog needs to be read again for its love. A package of appreciation for the love that we hold in the community of students. This is not inclusive or exclusive – it is brotherhood being lived to best of our knowings in true family-style.
“Imagine living every day with the knowing that as you enter the twilight years of your life you will be cherished and cared for to the bone, by a community that will be there for you and with you until your parting breath.”
Amazing Katerina there is no other words except the following … If you have something to do with this age-care process then it will be all to more amazing. How incredible is this to be a part of – I am. I am a student of The Way of The Livingness. I liked how you expressed and made this responsibility not just until when it is time for you to go into aged-care but always in that state of mind and body, for if we know and live this state, when it does come to that time, it will support all your carers too – as Katerina says the foundation will be there.
“Respect and dignity are birthrights for all, from the day we are born to the day our eyes are closed for the very last time. So is love.” This is beautiful Katerina, and ought to be the cornerstone of the care we give to those at the end of their lives – the tenet that all aged care facilities absolutely must be built on, and in that, The Way of The Livingness is definitely leading the way.
For sure there is a lot of unspoken fear about the last years of life, the dread of the care home, perhaps not helped by a society that is intent on making people last as long as possible, propping them up on medication to keep people alive, success being seen as a long life, but not really measuring the quality with the same value. Life should not be about clinging on and as an intelligent species we should be ensuring that the quality of care is right for all our elders, this is not beyond the scope of our capabilities, far from it. Perhaps our approach to life would be different if we believed in reincarnation and karma, do onto others and all that. For if we accepted we are coming back would we not look at death and dying and the very way we live in a whole new light?
‘The vacant, abandoned look in the eyes of the elderly who pass by, as they shrink away from life long before they pass over, is an indictment of the lack of quality of life we have allowed to be acceptable.’ – yes, it is. As a society we have become so focussed on ourselves to the detriment of our elderly who are either left struggling to cope in their own homes or placed in care facilities, often before this is really necessary. There is a shameful disregard for this vulnerable section of our society, a group of people who deserve to be treasured and shown the same respect and care as everyone else.
It really shows just how much we as a society have based our living on identification and what another can do for us. The fact that our elderly are so forgotten about shows that we give attention to those who we perceive as useful rather than respecting the life they contributed and just lovingly caring till the end.
Thank you Katarina – we are all responsible for this: “The vacant, abandoned look in the eyes of the elderly who pass by, as they shrink away from life long before they pass over, is an indictment of the lack of quality of life we have allowed to be acceptable.” – the elderly are accountable for giving up on life, but so is the rest of society that has abandoned them and dropped them like a tonne of bricks at the soonest convenience.
The reality, as you have so clearly shared, is that we have given up on a true way of living only to be left with superficial interactions and no true relationships to hold dear. But in small pockets there is change happening. And I have to agree that with the changes that I have been witness to through Universal Medicine, this change is indeed powerful and long lasting. And so it does not have to be a distant dream to have deep care, respect and dignity at our hands when we are in our elder years and close to dying. This is in fact a very sacred and special time and so it should be honoured as such.
Wow love your blog Katerina, I work in aged care and could testify to all you have said, it is indeed a lucrative industry which isn’t inspiring and appreciating our elders – it is draining them. The Way of The Livingness indeed presents a way which is our natural right, to have joy day by day and to feel cared for. The Way of The Livingess is indeed showing a way our elders can live in the glory that they are and be cared for by an industry that is aligned with this.
Harrison what a great opportunity to see the state of aged care today and be able to bring true aged care to life.
The power of The Way of The Livingness is very real-ly seen when we do know, have seen or experienced the reality of what age care is today as you have Harrison. I remember growing up around age care homes as my mum worked in this industry. I remember the vacantness feeling and also felt the joy that my brother and I brought as young children just being there. This is a gorgeous blog written and showing another and very needed way.
Great sharing Johanna! I also remember the joy that my sister and I brought to aged care homes when we visited, this is how carers should go and work also! It’s certainly what inspired me to go to work there.
To be cared for as I pass by those who live in such a way that their actions are founded on true care, and also know life as a cycle and death not as an end point – that would definitely be my choice of exit.
The purpose of every breath and every movement, is a reflection for brotherhood to return sooner than later as a normal in our every day lives. For nothing else is enough. So patience, dedication, commitment, acceptance, appreciation and love are all everyday learning and deepening. Livingness is not a dream, it is walking in honor of the trust in what we feel.
I enjoyed reading what you have shared here Adele Leung. How often we think that this is not enough but when we get to connect to our breath and movements in the quality that we know is true we come to the realisation that what we have been searching for has been right before your eyes all along.
Every single person can start to live out their love and truth, every single person. Stop looking at others and just start living it yourself. Brotherhood can start with just one person living out what feels true within with everyone around, and even if one person responds, we can go deeper. Even the most impossible situations begin with the living of our absolute knowing, brotherhood is never a destination, so there is no picture to follow as of what has to be achieved, but appreciate every step we have walked back to truth.
When we move in a way where respect and dignity is our absolute birthright, we will be responded more often than not with respect and dignity, those close to us also start asking to be respected in their actions. We cannot teach respect and dignity to anyone, we can only live it ourselves and allow it to be felt.
This article says a heap about the type of people that choose The Way of The Livingness as their expressed religion, I am one of these people. I have my parents and my husbands parents that I look forward to caring deeply for as they age. We are trying to factor in having seperate dwellings in the future on the property so as we can care for those that need it. I am not saying we will be able to afford this but I see it as something I cherish not a burden and I look forward to this time, like caring for a baby at birth. I have been so inspired by the students of the Way of the Livingness in how they have cared for those that are dying or elderly, it is truly beautiful to witness, they are role models to me with how I will be with elders in my life.
Amazing Sarah! The amount of love you have for people is really quite something. I can’t say I can say the same. The idea of looking after my parents actually really scares me and the thought of them needing the help bothers me also. It could be that what I’m feeling is that their life choices may end up being the result of why they might need certain care, and I feel like perhaps that is what I’m reacting too.
Sarah it’s very beautiful what you are sharing here and I have to say a rarity. The rarity is in the joy in which you are approach potentially caring for your parents and parents in law as they age. The beauty here is that it is so natural, without any sense of burden whatsoever. This is something that I see families struggle with everyday as they struggle with “what to do’ with their elderly parents/relatives. A foundation is certainly being played here for future generations to build on.
Yes Sarah, I’m very much with you. I have felt enormous inspiration, to know and have felt how the elderly have been cared for in our communities will never leave me. It’s the deepest truth I know.
It’s not surprising that with values around brotherhood and community struggling at an all time low, our elderly population is increasingly passing over in misery, vulnerability and fear. So it’s a true tonic to read the line, ‘ Imagine knowing that what is before you as you are close to parting from this life, is an ending that’s glorious, as you are surrounded by people who are your family through and through regardless of whether they’re a blood relation or not.’ The Way of the Livingness shows that there is indeed another way – and come the day, I’ll be in the queue.
Yes Cathy, and come that day I’ll be joyfully in the queue too! Any dread about ageing has been replaced with joy over the past few years for me. I know I will be deeply cared for, and I too know I will deeply care for others in my community, my family when those days come. It is something beautiful to feel, so very normal, how it has always meant to be.
Being a student of The Livingness, I am no longer fearful of getting old. Because like you say Katerina, I know that this community will support this process and I will be surrounded by family. Now, I’ve still got my whole life ahead of me, but it’s wonderful to feel the potential of those last years in life and that they don’t have to be terrible, lonely and full of disregard.
Lovely Rachel. Being a student of the Livingness has allowed me to feel their are no boundaries to love or family. Together we are. The loving support is there to receive just as its there to be offered.
We are living the future now and it is so needed. It’s obvious that the current systems for aged care is about business, money and is not really working for the people at all. I remember hearing stories of elderly going mad in nursing homes and behaving really abusively to the staff and each other. But, is that just a reflection of how they are being treated? Like they don’t matter anymore and society doesn’t need them? We all have so much to offer until our last breath and we deserve to cherish each other until this time.
I love what you share here about the care of the elderly people, when they most feel vulnerable to know they are held in love is everything. I am so inspired by how this has been written and what it can show other people. The impact of what we can bring is everything for the elderly and for ourselves- we all benefit from the love they are giving and receiving.
The Way of the Livingness is certainly changing many old structures in the lives of those who choose to live lives of honour and love for all. Your sharing of the unwavering support of the elder people in our communities is but one of these old stayed structures that is being completely re modeled to the innate truth that care represents. Thank you for sharing an amazing glimpse of how living lives full of joy can be supported to the last breath.
I was reminded of the saying “it takes a village to raise a child”. The same can be very much said about our elders too. I live and work in a rural town and have seen the gammat of what happens to our elderly when they are struggling to stay at home. There are long waiting lists for aged care facilities, so if care is needed they often end up waiting, sometimes for months, in hospital, for that allusive bed. There can often be 6 people plus waiting for a bed in hospital. Hospitals are not designed for long stays either. There is so much to say on this, however it is great to know that there are communities of people prepared to take responsibility for the care of their elderly, but also that the elderly themselves are also playing their part and taking responsibility for their own choices.
Jenny, I love what you have said here about the fact that it does take a community to raise a child and it also takes a community to care for our elderly and ensure that they get the deep care, respect and dignity right till their last breath and beyond. It is our responsibility as a whole to care for all the age groups no matter what.
I was thinking exactly this the other day Jennifer: “it takes a village to raise a child”. The same can be very much said about our elders too”, as a couple I know are having to prepare to leave their home to take up residence in an aged care village, and I was wondering what level of care would they be receiving, in all probability not the same if they were able to end their days amongst loving friends and family. Every stage of our lives in precious and everyone deserves to be treated with the utmost care and love, no matter how young or how old, and that certainly doesn’t appear to be happening in many parts of the world today.
It is interesting to note how we can come together as a community to support and celebrate the birth and welcoming of our young into this world yet the same quality is not offered when we pass. Is this not an example of how we are in truth not taking into consideration and appreciation the whole cycle of life.
It takes a village to love – to live in brotherhood and nurture each other no matter the age. This saying applies to everyone of all ages as we all need to feel care and take the responsibility to care for ourselves. We all need to be able to offer care and also be open to receiving it. Supporting each other as we support ourselves lovingly so – together is a true community.
Thank you for writing this article, as having worked with the elderly within their own homes and within care homes what soon stood out was how lonely they were. Even when they had family and friends there still seemed to be many hours of the day they would sit on their own, especially the women whose husbands had passed on. The Students of The Way of The Livingness are re-writing what it means to get old and also how care can be different from what is currently on offer.
A great topic to cover Katerina. You speak about something no one is talking about. We cover wills and money and property and assets and get our ‘affairs’ in order – but how often do we consider ‘how do I want to be cared for as I age?’ – What a huge question that we should all be considering. It is pretty cool that The Way Of The Livingness offer this sort of care and really do cherish each other and support each other. What an amazing way to grow old.
Great point Hannah, how often do we consider; ‘ how do I want to be cared for as I age? If we all were to stop and ponder on this question so much in the care that is now provided would improve drastically as we respect and truly care for all the elders in our community in the knowing and unescapable truth that we will all go through the rites of passage of death and reincarnation. Thus another question to consider could be; when do we start preparing for that precious time of passing over? No time like the present…. in taking responsibility for how we are living right now.
The scenarios Katerina invites us to imagine are great. Opening our hearts and considering how loving and honouring we imagine life could be as we age needs to be the foundation of the care provided for our elderly.
This is true Hannah. The other question is how do I prepare so I’m better able to care for myself in old age? Self neglect and abandonment heaped on our bodies in youth, adult and middle years are haunt us in old age. Few people link chronic old age illnesses to earlier lifestyle choices. Many say x, y and z happens because I’m old, whereas, for some, it happens because we let it.
This is so true Kehinde, I hear so many people use the excuse ‘it’s just what happen with age’, with regards to lack of health and wellbeing, when in fact, the truth is, it’s what happens when you don’t take care of yourself.
A truly amazing way to grow old and breathe our last breath in this life. This is greatly needed and craved by all of us – to be held in the warmth, care and love we deserve.