Blog
One year later: reflections and a resolve to keep on writing
A friend says my tone is different now than when I first started posting at this blog site one year ago. Maybe. But I’m glad I’ve started chronicling how this journey is affecting us.
There’s really so much to consider, and way too much to tell
A new answer to the popular but perplexing “How are you?”
Lesson from a professional: Let’s keep that left hand strong
Who will I be when my caregiving duties are over? Part of the answer to that rests in how I’m living my life today.
A caregiver’s loneliness is about more than being alone, Part 1
“The evenings are long, and I can feel so lonely.” I realize I share his experience, but for a completely different reason.
Not all, but not nothing: one caregiver’s quest for balance
The caregiver cannot maintain his former life completely. But he cannot and should not give it all up. How does he find balance between the two extremes?
Why ‘Monday Meditations’? Fruit from a long-term relationship
Today I’m celebrating new fruit from a relationship that began many years ago.
Finding ‘peace and poise’ amid many reminders that the past is past
“There are two words we don’t honor enough. One is ‘over’ and the other is ‘next.’”
One caregiver considers another new year: resignation and hope
“Oh what a foretaste of glory divine.” This year I’ll settle for the foretaste while nurturing hope for glory someday.
Welcome, old friend! We’re glad you’re here, even with the changes
We’re glad to see her again, but I’ve decided I just can’t give Christmas all she may want from me. And that’s OK.
Trying to remember a friend’s simple advice: ‘Live your life!’
“Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” I’m trying, I’m really trying.
At Christmas, too: Everything’s the same, and everything’s different
Through the decades, we stay the same, but our circumstances change. We approach life as we always have, even though life has become so different. Christmas is the perfect example of this.
Only slowly am I learning to embrace these days as privilege
I have lived a privileged life . . . even now. Especially now. That’s what I’m coming to realize.
Thinking about thanks with a gallery of reasons I’m grateful
Despite the difficulties in our days, here’s a gallery—just in time for Thanksgiving—to help me express a few ways I’m thankful.
Since we are our memory, what does this mean for her—and for me?
“We ARE our memory,” a friend said to me. And this adds another layer of sadness—and resolve—as I watch my wife’s memory fade and falter.
So many ‘last times,’ with more than a few moments still to savor
“I’ve eaten the last thing my mother will ever bake,” just the first of a long list of “last times” we could write. But “last times” are not unique to Alzheimer’s caregivers.
21 ways a 5-year-old and an Alzheimer’s patient are so much alike
I thought about home the whole time I was away. And it dawned on me that, although my grandson is great in every way, caring for a preschooler has definite similarities to my caregiving duties in Ohio.
Even when ‘it’ happens, I’m determined to practice gratitude
I’m learning—and I’m determined to keep learning—that joy follows gratitude, not the other way around.
It’s getting colder, time for shelter from the winter to come
Protecting from the pain and loss that comes with all of life, preserving beauty for just a little while longer. These are the tasks of every caregiver.
Happy birthday, Evelyn! Our birthday memories are a gift to me
Memories from birthdays past are a gift to ME as we celebrate again today.
‘Open hands’ . . . a picture of hope, a strategy for life
Holding tight to the past is not a strategy that brings peace. I learned an important lesson from a caregiver friend.