By Alexandra Drane. For four years running now, many of us bloggers have participated in what we’ve called a “blog rally” to promote Engage With Grace – a movement aimed at making sure all of us understand, communicate, and have honored our end-of-life wishes.

The rally is timed to coincide with a weekend when most of us are with the very people with whom we should be having these unbelievably important conversations – our closest friends and family.

At the heart of Engage With Grace are five questions designed to get the conversation about end-of-life started. We’ve included them at the end of this post.  They’re not easy questions, but they are important – and believe it or not, most people find they actually enjoy discussing their answers with loved ones.  The key is having the conversation before it’s too late.

This past year has done so much to support our mission to get more and more people talking about their end-of-life wishes. We’ve heard stories with happy endings … and stories with endings that could’ve (and should’ve) been better. We’ve stared down political opposition.  We’ve supported each other’s efforts.  And we’ve helped make this a topic of national importance.

So in the spirit of the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend, we’d like to highlight some things for which we’re grateful.  

Thank you to Atul Gawande for writing such a fiercely intelligent and compelling piece on “letting go” – it is a work of art, and a must read.  (more…)

By Alexandra Drane. For three years running now, many of us bloggers have participated in what we’ve called a “blog rally” to promote Engage With Grace – a movement aimed at making sure all of us understand, communicate, and have honored our end-of-life wishes.

The rally is timed to coincide with a weekend when most of us are with the very people with whom we should be having these unbelievably important conversations – our closest friends and family.

At the heart of Engage With Grace are five questions designed to get the conversation about end-of-life started. We’ve included them at the end of this post.  They’re not easy questions, but they are important – and believe it or not, most people find they actually enjoy discussing their answers with loved ones.  The key is having the conversation before it’s too late.

This past year has done so much to support our mission to get more and more people talking about their end-of-life wishes. We’ve heard stories with happy endings … and stories with endings that could’ve (and should’ve) been better. We’ve stared down political opposition.  We’ve supported each other’s efforts.  And we’ve helped make this a topic of national importance.

So in the spirit of the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend, we’d like to highlight some things for which we’re grateful.  

Thank you to Atul Gawande for writing such a fiercely intelligent and compelling piece on “letting go” – it is a work of art, and a must read. 

Thank you to whomever perpetuated the myth of “death panels” for putting a fine point on all the things we don’t stand for, and in the process,  shining a light on the right we all have to live our lives with intent – right through to the end.

Thank you to TEDMED for letting us share our story and our vision. 

And of course, thank you to everyone who has taken this topic so seriously, and to all who have  done so much to spread the word, including sharing The One Slide.

We share our thanks with you, and we ask that you share this slide with your family, friends, and followers. Know the answers for yourself, know the answers for your loved ones, and appoint an advocate who can make sure those wishes get honored – it’s something we think you’ll be thankful for when it matters most.  

Here’s to a holiday filled with joy – and as we engage in conversation with the ones we love, we engage with grace.

To learn more please go to www.engagewithgrace.org.

By Alexandra Drane.  About a year ago, as key elements of the health reform bill were in debate, some savvy political strategists coined the term “Death Panels.”

 It was both brilliant and damning – positioning end-of-life care as an incredibly personal decision put in the hands of a big government.  And it was catchy – to the point of scoring a cameo appearance on Saturday Night Live …even proving worthy of parody by Bill Maher.

What those savvy politicians forgot was that  sometimes even the best laid plans can be put to rest (pun absolutely intended). Because as frustrating as it was to see end-of-life issues exploited for political purposes, in the end, the Death Panel fiasco actually served to breathe life into the very opposite movement.   It did those of us telling our story about the importance of really understanding, sharing, and having honored our end-of-life wishes –whatever those wishes might be – a favor. It got people talking and thinking about this one issue that affects absolutely every one of us – ending our lives with the same grace and intent with which we lived them.

And today, one year later, we have a huge, respectable body of work around end-of-life planning in response to what was intended as a damning political catch-phrase.  Articles like Atul Gawande’s in The New Yorker; an Associated Press article on how Americans are overtreated; a multi-part segment on National Public Radio; debate over the topic in the Boston Globe …and so many more. 

We couldn’t have imagined when we went live with Engage with Grace in 2008 (you can watch a video of the launch here) that our movement would spread so far – but having seen the outpouring of support from people just eager to tell their story, we shouldn’t have been surprised by  the backlash Death Panels created.

The idea behind Engage with Grace is simple – we as a nation need a tool to help get these conversations started.  Something that can be shared easily with family, friends, colleagues – anyone really.   

So we came up with The One Slide —  just five questions about our end of life preferences each of us should be able to answer for ourselves, and for our loved ones, before it is too late to decide.  Preferences we should then commit to supporting – no matter what the opposition.  And we asked a whole lot of people to answer the questions for themselves, and then spread the word.

Now, thanks to an annual Thanksgiving blog rally  as well as countless supporters spreading the word through their teaching, their business presentations, and their after-hours conversations with friends and family – The One Slide is spreading, and the five questions are getting answered.  Engage With Grace was even named to the 2009 healthcare lexicon by HealthLeaders magazine.

So now, to celebrate the great honor it is to be in the company of Disruptive Women, we humbly ask that you help us keep the movement alive.   

Oh yeah – and one more thing – to all you fear-mongers out there who coined and perpetuated the Death Panel mania – we want to thank you.  Looks like your best laid plans just might be finding their final resting place.  

Pass it on.