At The North London Hospice

I've always been moved by the spirit of the North London Hospice. So much has happened there in the lives of so many people lots of us have cared about deeply. It's a place of lovingkindness, humility, and outstanding skill. It brings us together, it reminds us not only of our shared mortality but of what makes life worthwhile, - love, beauty which has nourished us, those moments when God's spirit touches us.

We share a meditation in the Room of Quiet. I read from the Hallel Psalms:
'For you have saved my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.' I think for a moment that these are the most inappropriate of lines to say in a hospice, where people do die. But I explain why I think they in fact belong most deeply here: Places like this stop our spirit from succumbing utterly to the power of death; the people who work here sustain us when our feet do stumble, they lead us back to the land of the living with renewed faith in the value of life.