Why Elder Caring Lawyering?

Care is at least in part
Of the cash register
Caring is from the heart

Care can be something done to an It; Caring is how friends are kind to one another.

Caring is an attitude of my heart; care is a commercial transaction.

Caring is a way of being with another person, of being present to one another. Care suggests something done for helpless subjects. I choose to be caring, and out of that to act.

“Fix who’s broken:” this is far from our model. Instead, we are about healing: making whole, complete. What or who needs to be complete? The senior who is our client, of course. Still, the family and friends circle that embraces the senior has a need for wholeness: there is grieving that each is doing, grieving for what and who used to be, grieving for what and who might soon fade from us. There is also a need to complete and put a capstone of whatever we value on our lives: love, kindness, forgiveness, laughter, tears.

What does a lawyer have to do with these things? Lawyers are one of the three original healing professions: Medicine heal our relations with our bodies; Clergy heal our relations with the Ultimate; and Lawyers heal our relations with other persons. So lawyers are people who can be in the thick of healing, completeness and wholeness.

Each elder is important. We want to have empathy for the senior, for every day we ourselves are becoming more senior!

We want to help, not as doing to, but as companions, persons walking alongside. Together is the key to becoming whole, complete.

Many elders are healthy and happy: they want their families to prosper and love one another. Others have or anticipate a health or financial crisis, and seek help. Most can finish their journeys feeling complete. All along this continuum are friends who have walked these paths. Maybe we can be such caring friends of yours.

Elder care is things done to things. Caring is among friends.

Care is a thing done to a person; caring is a doing with a whole family.

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