Category:  Health/Wellness Publisher: Tate Publishing& Enterprises Type: Non-Fiction Pages: 182 Spirit Matters is about helping people live full and productive lives while they are dying. It focuses on the importance of keeping the spirit (the person inside the body) alive and well during the course of a terminal illness. It brings hope and assurance that the end of life does not have to be a physically painful, frightening, and isolated experience. Most importantly, it will educate and empower the dying and their loved ones to take control of crucial decisions that are typically left to medical and bureaucratic systems that have little understanding of the real needs of the dying person.  Spirit Matters offers a seldom-considered but all-important perspective on what really matters at the end of life. As retired hospice nurse turned author, Judy focuses on the importance of keeping the spirit (the person inside the body) alive and well during the course of a life-limiting illness. It exposes the motives, misconceptions, and lack of knowledge that often prevent dying peope from receiving the type of care that can create and maintain a healthy spirit. The message is conveyed in eleven lessons illuminated by the personal stories of dying people and their loved ones. Readers will learn, laugh, cry, and hopefully realize that near the end of life, first and foremost, Spirit Matters. Excerpt "It is an undisputed fact that 100 percent of us will die. The issue as I see it, however, is not that we are going to die, but how we will live as we approach our deaths. Statistics show that 90 percent of adults will die of a chronic, lingering illness. Contrary to what we may hope for as the best way out, most of us will not be afforded a quick and easy death, but will take weeks, months or even more time to pass through the terminal stage of dying. This revelation should give us concern about the state of our spirits during this period because if our spirits are not alive and well, our remaining time becomes an enemy when it could have been a friend. As the current medical system takes its usual approach to a life-limiting illness, it often ignores a patient's spirit as it focuses on attempts to cure the disease. The unfortunate result is that by the time we finally admit that healing the body is no longer possible, there is often very little left of the person inside; the spirit is destroyed long before the disease kills the body."

Hal Urbin PhD, author of Life's Greatest Lessons
I;ve always thought that the people who work for hospice are at least part angle. Judy Flickinger is no exception. She's used her experiences with dying people, her insight, and her wisdom to provide sound and uplifting advice for people in the final phase of their lives. I highly recommend this book for both caregivers and for people who want to stay truly alive until the very end.

Bernie Siegel, MD, author of Faith, Hope, & Healing and 365 Prescriptions for the Soul
When we truly accept our mortality, we learn about life. The best hospices have graduations and dropouts because when people get ready to die, they truly can begin to learn to live. The lessons to be learned from this book will help you to live, fully alive. Your life can be enhanced by its wisdom and the author's insight into the human spirit.

Larry Dosey, MD, author of Healing Words and the Power of Premonitions
Judy Flickinger courageously confronts our final phase of life with wisdom and compassion.