In the beginning it wasn’t easy.
It did not come naturally or instinctively.
Working so closely with death often scared me;
I was afraid I might get what the dying person had.
When I recognized, however,
that I already have what dying people have
—mortality—
I stopped being afraid of catching it.
Recognizing this very interconnectedness
is the ground of giving no fear,
and the beginning of compassion.
Patient and caregiver are one and the same,
connected by life and death
as by suffering and joy.
When we manage to step through fear
by reconnecting with each other,
real compassion arises.
Joan Halifax
Being with Dying:
Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death