Category Archives: Healing and Wholeness
Modern emigrants
“Right up to the last minute,” Joelle said to me “the soul has work to do” Weeks later her words lead me to ask What if it were more than disease this Alzheimer’s & these our tribe’s tired left behind … Continue reading
Even if the other cannot
Even if the other cannot, conversing can make you more whole. :- Doug.
dementia-land
To converse with someone in dementia-land, get past your frustration. Be with this one, now, here—affirm them. Be here. Be kind. Hear. :- Doug.
hearing a life
The task of eldering at least in part is not telling a message, rather hearing a life. :- Doug.
Posted in Conversation, Eldering, Healing and Wholeness
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In illness we are stuck
In illness we as visitor, as sufferer, are stuck in the pain and againstness. How might we free ourselves? The very how might be in the act of traveling elsewhere. Yesterday always fades in today’s new thing. :- Doug.
Can you build and heal?
Can you build and heal? You can, through your conversations, in whatever form. You can become part of their stories, immersed. :- Doug.
Posted in Conversation, Eldering, Healing and Wholeness
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Inciting a decent society
If we intend to be human we ought to open to hearing what is difficult to hear. Do we have the imagination to take into ourselves the experiences of another? Is this something an elder can learn for the rest … Continue reading
Fear of the nursing home
Fear of the nursing home is a failure of imagination. :- Doug.
To sing his or her life
Here’s an elder in a nursing home, or here’s one with dementia: What could it mean to hear this one encouraged to tell or sing his or her life? :- Doug.
Can it be fulfilling?
Can living with a nursing home be fulfilling? :- Doug.
What has your life taught you?
What has your life taught you about caring for another and about accepting care? Whom have you met and what have they taught you about being an elder, about the role of the elder in the family and community? :- … Continue reading
Whom will you elder?
Whom will you elder? Children and youth to imagine and fire an upward future? Adults and middlers to lift their eyes to stars above and worlds around? Your community to find perspective? Your fellow elders to find and create our … Continue reading
Posted in Conversation, Eldering, Family, Healing and Wholeness, Poetry
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To miss these….
The soul is not in the body but the body in the soul The poetry is not in the words but the words in the poetry The conversation is not in the persons but the persons in the conversation The … Continue reading
Posted in Conversation, Eldering, Healing and Wholeness, Poetry
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Name this grandchild
How might you name this grandchild? Bright eyes, Beloved, Curious, Firefly, Grasshopper, Wonderful, Mighty: what do you see in whom you see? Can your sight draw her out? Help her see her humanity, animality. divinity? :- Doug.
Posted in Eldering, Healing and Wholeness
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Ripe times
More times than we would guess are ripe times for reflection. :- Doug.
Posted in Eldering, Healing and Wholeness
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