WHEN WE EMBARK

The following descriptive journey should be taken only as a suggestion of one of the ways we can focus on loving relationships, to make the time of physical death a spiritual experience for all. Guided imagery can be a way to lessen that anxiety and sense of loss, which is so common when patients are facing death. With guided imagery, we can take the patient to another time and place where there is love and beauty and healing.

As long-time volunteers, we have been a support to many patients as they approach death. Feelings are foremost leading up to the approaching event of embarkation on that final journey. Those final days and hours are especially poignant. Caregivers may be apprehensive while waiting as the loved one must go through the experience of dying, of taking those final steps by oneself and feeling alone. Caregivers can help to lessen the level of anxiety by surrounding the death experience with love, hope and serenity. With imagination, the guided journeys to that other shore can be varied at will and repeated.

Close your eyes and relax your body and take several deep breaths. You are now on a journey back in time to a favorite shore, where once you had loved to visit with your family and friends. You are standing by the shore and you feel the gentle breeze. Notice how crystal clear is the water. Listen to the sound of the waves lapping on the shore. Take a deep breath and enjoy the smell of the sea.

Then, one by one, family members and your dearest friends come to join you, for they all know that you will be embarking on that long journey. They are the dear ones who have a special place in your life and they have come to reassure you that all will be well. Your family members, who are close to your heart, each greet you with a warm embrace. You call each one by their names and remember in detail their endearing special qualities and recall some of the good times you have shared.------Take a few moments to recall the setting---picture each one and appreciate how special they have been. Sometimes they made you laugh. You feel free to mention a sad incident that happened once and how sorry you have been and you both kiss and cry a bit. Your friends each come to embrace you and you call your dear friends each by name and tell each one how much you appreciate their kindness. You look at the group around you and you know that you have been truly blessed and you tell them that you must leave and you will miss them, but that is all right. We have shared our love for each other and our love of life. Our love is forever, and love’s messages will be shared regardless of time and space.

Now, from the other shore, your loved ones have come to be your guide on that long journey------. How thoughtful of them to be here for you! They are your angels and you are so glad to see them and you call each one by name. During their lifetimes, they had helped you to become who you were and then, from the other side, had been your guiding light. Now, in their presence, you feel whole and totally at peace. Your angel-friends have come to be with you as you are leaving your body. You really don’t need it now, for your body is not who you are or what you are, not any more.

Your ship has now arrived from that other side and is waiting. You no longer can delay. Your angel friends, who came especially for you from the other side, are holding your hands. They guide you to the pilot who welcomes you. Your pilot, like your angel friends, is the kindest, most reassuring being you’ve ever met. As your ship pulls away, the crowd on the shore is calling goodbye. Some are weeping, but not only because they are sad; they all are so glad for your companions and thankful for your peaceful passing. You find that you now have a beautiful gift. You can now send personal messages to each of those you love on earth. Now, your love is forever and you will always be there for them.

Crossing The Bar, by Alfred Lord Tennyson, was a poem I memorized long ago in grade school. It has been for me one of those spiritual pieces of literature that inspired me to create my own mental images of that final journey.