When I'm giving care to a dying person, I try both to give and receive kindness as if I were the dying one's mother and to see the dying one as my mother, saying silently to myself, "Now it is time for me to repay the great kindness of all motherly beings." Thinking of all beings with motherly love is a good reference point when I have fallen into automatic behavior, am feeling alienated, or having trouble opening my heart.
— Joan Halifax, Being with Dying