Monthly Archives: February 2012

means the most to you?

Posted on February 28, 2012 by dgermann

What are the things in your life that mean the most to you, things you’d like your loved ones to have, too?

:- Doug.

  1. What are the things in your life that mean the most to you, things you’d like your loved ones to have, too?

Posted in Healing and Wholeness | Leave a comment

If not the stuff you owned?

Posted on February 27, 2012 by dgermann

What would you leave in your Will if it were not stuff you owned? What do you hold in trust? What do you hold in your mind or your heart? What do you want to give wings?

If you could not Will away what you own, what would you most want to Will to your loved ones? My mind and heart goes to:

o sunsets
o lazy summer days spent lying on your back watching clouds shift their shapes
o star-gazing arm-in-arm with a loved one
o conversations that reveal our real selves
o cooing to babies
o laughing till you cry
o crying till you laugh
o holding a little hand in yours

:- Doug.

Posted in Healing and Wholeness | Leave a comment

The inviting

Posted on February 26, 2012 by dgermann

The inviting lawyer
Inviting family, friends
Those who care
Young with old
Sister with brother
Husband with wife
Heart with head
Finding our common ground
Our common human humus
Finding our common heart
This kind of
Inviting lawyer
I work toward becoming

:- Doug.

Posted in Conversation, Family, Healing and Wholeness | Leave a comment

In the nursing home

Posted on February 25, 2012 by dgermann

In the nursing home, what is your life like, what do you find are the things that most engage you? What do you wonder about? About what do you find precious few people to talk with you?

:- Doug.

Posted in Aging, Caring, Conversation, Healing and Wholeness, Long-Term Care | Leave a comment

We mourn because

Posted on February 24, 2012 by dgermann

We mourn because we thought we’d have them forever with us, and now they are gone. And yet, we have them, just not in the flesh. We have them in imagination, in the marks of their spirits on ours. But the pain, the pain comes in the loss of what we thought was static. Nothing is static.

That is no consolation for the person grieving—the only thing is to be there, be where they are and hold hands. Stand there, and face what they are facing, be the one who is connected with them and with life. And then that too is over.

And I do not know if that is what happens. I only know that it was important to me when people came and stood.

:- Doug.

Posted in Death and dying, Grieving, Healing and Wholeness | Leave a comment

A Will we write

Posted on February 23, 2012 by dgermann

A Will we write
Together
With our spouse
With our grandchildren to the 7th generation
With our tasks and causes
Our blessings and curses
Our dreams and nightmares
Our ancestors
Our humankindness
Together, only together

:- Doug.

Posted in Family, Poetry, Wills | Leave a comment

The poetry of your life

Posted on February 22, 2012 by dgermann

The poetry of your life—
where does it reside?
in sons and daughters
wives and husbands
places we’ve lived
jobs we’ve given up
work which grew us
tasks we were called to
perhaps against our wills
scraps of life
we always meant to put in books
scraps of life only now understood
yesterdays and tomorrows
what about todays?

:- Doug.

Posted in Dreams, Eldering, Family, Poetry | Leave a comment

Your heirs will sing

Posted on February 21, 2012 by dgermann

What would cause the lives of our heirs to sing?

Let us think about our heirs, our children, our grandchildren: What kind of a sense of humor does she have? What are his interests? With what does her imagination soar? What’s his greatest heartbreak? If she had a year off, what would she do? What’s his dream? What does she like to do? How does he rejuvenate?

From this attending to people we can learn what we can do, and what gifts we have—probably beyond money—which can encourage, inspire, boost them. What is the absolute best we can do by our grandchildren? What responsibility do we have to them? How can we respond today?

:- Doug.

Posted in Dreams, Eldering, Family, Healing and Wholeness, Wills | Leave a comment

In Will: ask blessing

Posted on February 20, 2012 by dgermann

In our Will
from whom dare we ask blessing
to whom give our unfinished task
what unfinished task
would be our blessing?

:- Doug.

Posted in Healing and Wholeness | Leave a comment

What worlds create?

Posted on February 19, 2012 by dgermann 
With a Will
  What worlds
    Can we
      Create?
        What ideals
          Now populate?
            What hearts
              Evocate?

:- Doug.

Posted in Dreams, Family, Healing and Wholeness, Poetry, Wills | Leave a comment

families come together

Posted on February 18, 2012 by dgermann

Good happens
when families
come together

:- Doug.

Posted in Conversation, Family, Healing and Wholeness, Poetry | Leave a comment

Your Will is not for ever

Posted on February 15, 2012 by dgermann

Your Will is not for ever
—Re-read every two years
Your love is not said and done
—Repeat often

:- Doug.

Posted in Family, Healing and Wholeness, Poetry, Wills | Leave a comment

You’ve lived through 65 years

Posted on February 12, 2012 by dgermann

Listen! You’ve lived through 65 years. You’ve earned the right to be compassionate.

:- Doug.

Posted in Healing and Wholeness | Leave a comment

Boomers: Your next 20 years

Posted on February 11, 2012 by dgermann

Boomers: Will your next 20 years count for something? How will you be of service?

:- Doug.

Posted in Aging, Eldering | Leave a comment

What is urgent about eldering?

Posted on February 8, 2012 by dgermann

Just what is urgent about eldering? That you only have a few good years left? Yes, that is part of it. That the world needs what you have, while you have the energy? Yes, that too. That the world is falling apart now, and so needs what you have, now? Yes. That you might not have tomorrow to do the good you have in your heart to do? Yes, for sure.

:- Doug.

Posted in Eldering | Leave a comment

Sickness Doctors and Wellness Lawyers

Posted on February 4, 2012 by dgermann

We see our physicians as sickness doctors. What an absolute difficult thing it would be for us to turn that around and think of them as wellness doctors. Our whole society thinks this way, patients and doctors, insurance people and government people. And yet what good we could do if we changed our focus! We could become healthy. Do we get more of what we continually watch?

Where is there a model for this? Dentists! We see our dentist every 6 months, do preventive maintenance, and mine at least is friendly and seems to have time for me. If we have a problem it can be taken care of, and I would bet while it is still small enough to correct easily.

The same is true of Elder Caring lawyers and Estate Planning lawyers: people see these folks while still healthy or relatively healthy, in order to keep the family’s future healthy. Sure, sometimes there are problems, even crises, but that is not the focus of this aspect of the law. These are wellness lawyers.

:- Doug.

Posted in Healing and Wholeness | Leave a comment

Our whole work is conversation.

Posted on February 1, 2012 by dgermann

Our whole work is conversation. Whole, as in rounded, full, complete, healing. Our, as in each person on this globe. Conversation, meaning turning with, a picture of dancing, and a picture of turning over a compost heap to keep it working! The only way we have to love one another is conversation, which may be words, may be silences, may be a touch or a glance.

:- Doug.

Posted in Caring, Conversation, Eldering, Healing and Wholeness | Leave a comment