Category Archives: Family

Have you had the end of life conversation?

Posted on June 5, 2012 by dgermann

Have you had the end of life conversation? If not, when? How will you begin? Whom do you love enough to have the conversation? Whom among your clients and patients do you love enough to help get this conversation started? … Continue reading →

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We enact family

Posted on June 5, 2012 by dgermann

Breathing together, we enact family, we enact together. Breathing together, we learn the other person, we enter their inside, their way of thinking, being and feeling. Breathing together, we realize that we are one, that even if we don’t think … Continue reading →

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Love around the death bed

Posted on June 4, 2012 by dgermann

Let us speak of going beyond living in a “normal” (actually subdued, greyed-over) community, where everybody is marching toward the grave with as little pain as possible. Let us speak of having the pain, having the ecstasy, having the full … Continue reading →

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If death were not for keeps

Posted on June 3, 2012 by dgermann

What if we did not see death as for keeps, but as a chapter, a pearl on a continuing string? The family, the tribe, the story goes forward. Someone is born, and destined to change the drama. Someone dies and … Continue reading →

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With Mom: we are all in the nursing home.

Posted on May 26, 2012 by dgermann

With Mom: we are all in the nursing home. :- Doug.

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How do you want them to experience your death?

Posted on May 19, 2012 by dgermann

How do you want your children and grandchildren to experience your death? :- Doug.

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Preparing your children?

Posted on May 18, 2012 by dgermann

What are you doing to prepare your children for your death? :- Doug.

Posted in Death and living while dying, Eldering, Family | Leave a comment

The right answer to aging?

Posted on May 17, 2012 by dgermann

What is the right answer to aging? What is the right answer to caring for your parents? :- Doug.

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What does it mean to be a burden?

Posted on May 16, 2012 by dgermann

What about caring with you would be a burden? What does it mean to be a burden? Was it a burden to change your children’s diapers? :- Doug.

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Who can we be?

Posted on May 15, 2012 by dgermann

Dad’s getting older, maybe dying—who can we yet be together? :- Doug.

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Vending machine picture of law

Posted on May 14, 2012 by dgermann

Many times we have a vending machine picture of law: put in a coin, out comes a certain result, predictably. Time by time we find we are in a flowing stream with 10,000 variables floating past, each can touch us, … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, Caring, Conversation, Death and living while dying, Dreams, Eldering, Emergency/Crisis Medical, Estates: Administration & Probate, Family, Grieving, Healing and Wholeness, Long-Term Care and nursing homes, Powers of Attorney, Trusts and Trusting, Wills | Leave a comment

When one of us is aging….

Posted on May 12, 2012 by dgermann

When one of us is aging our only options are to respond with love or fear. Anything not love is fear. :- Doug.

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This family can….

Posted on May 11, 2012 by dgermann

This family can live and love into our future. Let’s get to work. :- Doug.

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What would you be willing to do?

Posted on May 10, 2012 by dgermann

What would you be willing to do to help your family come alive now? :- Doug. What would you be willing to do to help your family come alive now?

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What questions could this family ask?

Posted on May 8, 2012 by dgermann

What questions could this family ask which would start us on a game of hide and seek? :- Doug.

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Blessing are here

Posted on May 4, 2012 by dgermann

One of the most pernicious things we do in this society is to act as if we are separate from others, especially from our family and friends. They benefit from us, and we from them. We should not withdraw, fearing … Continue reading →

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Ask for bigger eyes

Posted on May 4, 2012 by dgermann

It is difficult in family long term care settings to see any larger truth, let alone make sense of it. What to do when we are blind? Maybe we can ask of one another: What else do you notice? What … Continue reading →

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