Considering End of Life Choices

 I have just returned from a rich retreat with some Unitarian friends, during which we played a fascinating card game called 'The Conversation Game'. The cards are available from Conversations for Life.

Each participant was given 36 cards, each of which has a particular statement about possible end of life / dying choices written on it, and we were invited to divide them into three piles without thinking about it too much, according to the following criteria:

    Pile 1: things that we really want to be in place

    Pile 2: things that are less important to us, but we'd probably still quite like, depending on the circumstances

    Pile 3: things that we are not bothered about or which we actively do *not* want to happen.

Then, following that initial sort through, we were invited to take a more leisurely browse through the three piles, before finalising them into three equal piles of 12 cards (for today, for now, because each of us were aware that our choices might change when we were actually at the point of dying). 

Then we were invited to share however many of our choices we wished to, taking Pile 3 first, then Pile 1, and finally Pile 2, giving our reasons for placing each statement in that pile. And it was fascinating to hear each other's choices and to notice the differences between us, and how much what the other participants said caused each of us to think at different points, "Oh, yeah, right, I need to move that one into X pile." in the light of the received wisdom of the group.

I've ordered my own set of cards, because I believe they'd be really useful to share with Unitarian congregations or engagement groups...