Category Archives: Eldering
The modern form of shunning
How might we restore life to those in the nursing home? Do we see folks in nursing homes as dead men and women walking? We need to assign blame in this to ourselves, and not to society in general: what … Continue reading
I had the ouchies backwards
I used to say we spend 98.5% of our time thinking in the future. Now I think I had it backwards. What we learned and experienced years ago recorded tapes and disks we replay now. Often unconsciously. But if now … Continue reading
Posted in Conversation, Eldering, Healing and Wholeness
Leave a comment
How human in a nursing home?
How human, that is, creative, do we allow people to be in a nursing home? Staff, administrators, residents all face the same limits. :- Doug.
Cannot be unwritten
The poem cannot be unwritten :- Doug.
Posted in Eldering, Family, Poetry
Leave a comment
Meaning of life and dementia
What is the meaning of life for a person who has dementia? For a person who is never going to get well? :- Doug.
Posted in Caring, Eldering, Family, Healing and Wholeness
Leave a comment
A new person every day
A new person every day Mom is Can I meet her afresh? :- Doug.
Posted in Aging, Caring, Conversation, Eldering, Family, Healing and Wholeness, Poetry
Leave a comment
A Mom is a terrible thing to waste
A Mom is a terrible thing to waste :- Doug.
We flare up, we flame
We flare up, we flame for an instant and then we are snuffed out by a stray breeze The part of us to live on is the brightness or what we are able to light Maybe our fractal tongue a … Continue reading
Posted in Eldering, Poetry
Leave a comment
Parkinson’s unbearable, faithful
Thinking, thinking, thinking And my left thumb the only remains After Parkinson’s Pain too: unbearable, faithful I am so trapped I do not ask To whom I can offer my Thinking, thinking, thinking This would give purpose to my days: … Continue reading
Posted in Eldering, Healing and Wholeness, Poetry
Leave a comment
The life unsolved
The life unsolved Businesses want to solve everything As if life, my life, were a problem As if every problem had a solution To get exactly what you pay for Means no more lagniappe No mystery, no silence, no life … Continue reading
Posted in Eldering, Poetry
Leave a comment
9-year-olds, 3-year-olds
If some people who have trouble thinking are in some ways regressing, then what activities do we give to 9-year-olds, 3-year-olds? Could those things bring pleasure to some of our elders, help them feel engaged, heard, and touched? If this … Continue reading
Posted in Aging, Eldering, Family, Healing and Wholeness
Leave a comment
Thinking forward in long-term health progressions
Thinking forward, thinking backward: how does this apply to families in long-term health progressions? Backward has its uses—what we have done for one another, how we have loved one another. Forward thinking takes us through observation and construction of the … Continue reading
Our holy work is to
Our holy work is to expand worlds: of individuals and families facing tough long-term care decisions, and of communities wanting to be communities. :- Doug.
Posted in Caring, Conversation, Eldering, Family, Healing and Wholeness
Leave a comment
My storytelling:
My storytelling: Ask my grandchildren What color is her hair? Gold as the what? What special ability does she have? What is she shy about? What reason does she have to leave her home this day? Whom does she meet … Continue reading
Posted in Eldering, Family
Leave a comment
What do you like to do?
What do you like to do? Have you tried anything new in the last decade? Painting, poetry, pottery? What keeps your spirit young? :- Doug.
Posted in Aging, Eldering, Healing and Wholeness
Leave a comment
If we could travel to the stars
If we could travel to the stars and when our grandchildren in the 17th generation reached the place, the stars might not be there any more. For what we see as the stars is the light of eons ago, a … Continue reading
Posted in Eldering, Family, Poetry
Leave a comment
Arguments–spats–like closings
Arguments—spats—seem like closings—I wonder if sometimes they still are openings—especially if we can get past feeling uncomfortable. :- Doug.
Posted in Conversation, Eldering, Family
Leave a comment