The Five Invitations

Discovering What Death Can Teach Us ABout Living Fully. By Frank Ostaseski

This is one of the most important books I’ve read in my life. I read it almost in one sitting, and I’ve shared it often. Written by the cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco, it is a seasoned treatment of how dealing with death opens us to life. It’s a wise and kind book that will likely introduce you to different ways to be present to your own experiences as well as those of your patients and their loved ones of loss and grief, love, noticing and bearing witness to a choreography of life and death. It’s an invitation to trust and accompany rather than direct, to learn from the unfolding of truth and ways that are larger than we are. I consider this book to be an essential read in what I call Medicine’s Missing Curriculum. It will show you ways to come alongside patients that you likely will not have known and be a balm for you in those hard times.