The tide recedes, but leaves behind bright seashells in the sand. The sun goes down, but gentle warmth still lingers in the land. The music stops, and yet echoes on in sweet refrains. For every joy that passes, something beautiful…
Today, the road all runner's come, Shoulder high, we bring you home, And set you at the threshold down, Townsman of a stiller town. —A.E. Housman. Ethics committees and consultation in pediatrics are both relatively recent phenomena. In the 1970s,…
I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.… I want to know if you can sit with pain–mine or your own–without moving to hide it, or fade it,…
You're a song, a wished-for song. Go through the ear to the center where sky is, where wind, where silent knowing. Put seeds and cover them blades will sprout where you do your work. —Rumi This chapter delves into interdisciplinary…
No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it. — Halford E. Luccock While the actual number of patients in pediatric palliative care is small relative to the number of adults, the scope of the field…
If we listen closely, children who are dying and their families will tell us everything we need to know to care for them: they want to be loved, to be cared for and cared about, to know that their lives…
Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed; the culture reflects the realities of people working together every day. —Frances Hesselbein, The Key to Cultural Transformation, Leader to Leader, Spring 1999…
In thinking about where your child will die, at home or in the hospital, you have to contemplate something that is utterly heartbreaking. Recognize that you are doing the hardest, most selfless, and most loving work a parent ever could…
It takes a village to raise a child. —Igbo Proverb This well-known Igbo proverb highlights the key role played by the community in the healthy development of its members. Such a community takes an active role in the transmission of…
I didn't know what ‘metachromatic leukodystrophy’ meant. I asked for an explanation and when they told us it was something to do with his brain I just kind of panicked and freaked out… His mental abilities are going to be…