Let's just say, you don't need to do anything that anyone can "see" but if they are tuned in, can "feel."

All the work involved with being a presence isn't really work at all.

Presence is a "Be Here Now" experience.

Presence is a radiant tuning in to your patient.

Presence is an act of love.

Presence transforms sadness to the higher vibration of love.

Recently, I had the opportunity to participate in a death bed vigil of a day old patient. I am not a hospice nurse. But my job offers me the gift of allowing and opening to the higher vibrations of the angelic realm, to the unseen guides and ancestral vibrations as a soul passes from this realm and into the next.

Or as a soul passes into this world, as in the birth experience.

My job allows me to connect routinely with source energy, the energy which is love itself, the energy which is healing itself.

As vitality overtakes a newborn person, the unseen forces rejoice and celebrate, even as everyone at the bedside rejoices.

And when a person dies, the unseen forces rejoice, even as the people still in this dimension perceive death to be a negative phenomena.

Nurses find the act of "being" to be a difficult state to maintain. We often feel that we must be doing something for a patient at all times.

The trick is to "be" while "doing."

Do a task but practice conscious breathing, practice opening your heart, practice just "being" while "doing," practice just being open.

Practice balancing the unseen realms with what is tangible.

Practice being flexible, nonjudgmental and helpful.

Ho'oponopono is a natural practice for nurses.

Ho'oponopono is an ancient Hawaiian healing technique that simply requires the inner chanting of four phrases: I love you, Thank you, Please forgive me, (for the part I played in bringing about this "problem"), I am sorry (for the part I played).

As my dear one day patient was dying, I practiced inwardly repeating these phrases.

Instead of consciously denouncing the act of this passing as unfair, horrible or even as an act of god/dess, I just concentrated on: I am sorry for the part I am playing in this little one's death, Please forgive me for the part I am playing in the death of this newborn person.

I inwardly repeating this with rhythmic and conscious breathing.

At one point, the baby looked as if he was going to die. Breathing slowed, and a cyanotic appearance took over the tiny body.

Suddenly he pinked up and lived another 22 hours.

Byron Katie's The Work was also helpful to me in this situation.

Byron Katie's "The Work" is a process where a "problem" is scrutinized with Inquiry, or a series of questions, that puts the responsibility right back where it belongs--inside yourself.

The 4 questions of Byron Katie's "The Work"

1) Is it true?

2) Can you absolutely know for sure that it's true?

3) How do you react when you think that thought?

4) Who would I be without that thought?

---and turn it around---

This one is a no-brainer.

This situation is unfair, and the parents don't deserve this.

Is this true?

Yes.

Can I absolutely know that this is true?

Yes.

How do I react when I think this thought?

Judgmental and restricted.

Who would I be without this thought?

I'd simply be a healing presence for these wonderful people.

Turn it around?

The situation is neither fair or unfair. It simply is what it is.

Reality dictates that this newborn person is dying NOW.

My choice: to resist this or go with the flow, to allow connection with the unseen forces, to be a healing presence, to see that the sadness is really love.

Transforming sadness to an all-embracing, boundless vibration of love is really what this situation, all situations and what life is all about.

The choice is to always choose love, no matter what.