"About a year into his job as an interfaith chaplain at Tampa General Hospital in Tampa, Fla., J.S. Park began to have what he calls "really awful death anxiety." "I saw all the ways people could be injured, especially working at a trauma center," he says. When he was around his wife and kids, he'd think, "this could be the last time that I get to hear their laughter and see their faces like this," he says."
"Death is often an uncomfortable and even shocking topic for many people. But in his 10 years as a hospital chaplain a job that Park describes as "a cross between a priest and a therapist" he's learned that talking about it can help prepare us for the reality that "it could happen, at any moment, to any of us." Park,"
An interfaith chaplain at a trauma center developed intense death anxiety after repeated exposure to severe injuries and imagining losing family. That anxiety shifted into a heightened appreciation for present moments, with awareness of mortality enriching daily experiences. Death often provokes discomfort and avoidance, leading people to offer platitudes like "this happened for a reason" or "everything will be all right" that dismiss suffering. Such responses usually stem from existential panic as families and caregivers confront fragility and mortality. Open, honest conversations about dying can prepare people for the possibility that death can occur at any moment to anyone.
Read at www.npr.org
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