Palliative Care:
comfort and love

Every pain has its cause. Sometimes it is in the present, sometimes is in the past. Some diseases can be cured with reflection, inner reform and identification of sense of unbalance; others can be cured by unknown factors, without so clear specific reasons to our limitation and there are still others that last without prediction of healing; however, an inexplicable and blessed way, they aim to hone the spirit of those who pass by the occurrence and his companions of the moment. There will always be a reason. However, pain, anyway, is pain... And in this case, following the continued distress of a relative or a friend is undoubtedly also suffering.

But if the face of a painful occurrence there will always be the light of something soft and hopeful, palliative care give a little encouragement and alleviate the pain of those who undergo progressive or incurable diseases, improving the quality of life, preventing and alleviating suffering not only of the sick as relatives, friends and caregivers.

The Department of Palliative Care Medical-Spiritist Association of Brazil prepared a primer in order to provide information on the subject to interested parties. Everything can somehow improve or soften as there are people in all sectors, dedicated to the - albeit limited - well-being of others.

The benefits from such care are very important because people with life threatening diseases can live longer and with fewer hospital admissions, provide better control of physical and emotional symptoms, greater spiritual well-being and better quality of life. Such care is essential to ease the suffering of about 40 million people between children, adults and the elderly - these, the largest number in the world - by giving them more comfort and dignity.

In this sense, the spirituality and the Doctrine can contribute a lot, because the belief in the continuity of life and the understanding that there is a reason for every event comfort the hearts. Each person, however, has his own belief and no way we impute the doctrine we profess to those who have a different belief taught by Spiritism, because there is time for everything, as it shows the Book of Ecclesiastes, 3: 2:

"Everything has its season, and a time to every purpose under heaven."

Well, if there is time for everything, it is necessary to strengthen us in faith to the most difficult days be accepted as noble lessons of life and may the sick be cared for by loving, dedicated people, learning from lived experience, because the body perishes but the Spirit is bird of eternity, and being eternal bird, the law that governs life brings the comforting embrace, full of hope, patience, resignation, as well as answers to many questions that at the time seem insoluble.

We learn from the Doctrine that nothing in life happens by chance and that people are never connected by misguided ties. We are all in the right place and with who we should be, but we can always improve on and enhance the progress also watching the experience of others.

Each existence is a blow before the eternity; the allocation of the Spirit is the evolution in the timeline. However, when we incarnate, the physical body is a remarkable laboratory experiments, largely, albeit ill-fated, are absolutely necessary to our progress.

We have a Gracious and Almighty Father that relieves us by love, often through palliative care, to remind us always that death and suffering are natural processes of life for the renewal of the spirit.

Life, then conquests to our simple eyes every new dawn its incomparable condition of the noblest creation of God. And gradually, the divine spark within us awakens to this blessed creation, sometimes in the sick place, sometimes in place of helper, as we are all on the path that will lead us one day to perfection.