Category Archives: Healing and Wholeness
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
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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.
Not a skill
Conversation is not a skill Like driving a car Many driving actions need to be Ingrained So we can act in an instant Conversing takes an ever new We Ever present Ever conscious of Everything The only ingrained is Moment … Continue reading
Posted in Conversation, Family, Healing and Wholeness, Poetry
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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
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Engaging is loving
Engaging is loving :- Doug.
Posted in Caring, Conversation, Family, Healing and Wholeness, Poetry
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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
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A Mom is a terrible thing to waste
A Mom is a terrible thing to waste :- Doug.
What does he like to do now?
What does he like to do Now? Meet Dad anew :- Doug.
Campfire mode
Campfire mode Poetry mode One digs deep within The other flies beyond outer reaches Both modes find the same sea In our reflections We see more clearly :- Doug.
Posted in Healing and Wholeness, Poetry
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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
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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
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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
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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
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What opens us?
What is holy about my work? :- Doug.
Posted in Conversation, Family, Healing and Wholeness
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