A Sit with M.

Francesca Lynn Arnoldy

I find my breath

Guilty? or Grateful?

I check for signs of yours

Lucky? or Lingering?

 

I see, in your tired eyes

-which I wipe with dampened cloth-

Yearning

 

I feel, in your shaking hand

-which I hold gently in mine-

Restlessness

 

I hear, in your muted sounds

-which I strain to comprehend-

Love

 

I sit as Doula

I sit as Human

I sit as Life, bright yet knowing

Witness to thresholds

present and still.

-Francesca Arnoldy, 2018

 

 

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Published by Francesca Lynn Arnoldy

Francesca Lynn Arnoldy is a community doula and death literacy advocate. A respected thought leader in the end-of-life care field, she is the author of MAP OF MEMORY LANE (a picture book), CULTIVATING THE DOULA HEART (a guidebook) and THE DEATH DOULA'S GUIDE TO LIVING FULLY AND DYING PREPARED (an interactive workbook). She is a published researcher with the Vermont Conversation Lab and was the original creator of the doula training programs at the University of Vermont. At the core of all her work is a dedication to inspire compassion, connection, and confidence for life's greatest times of intensity. She resides in a quaint village in rural Vermont with her beloveds.

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