Aging well
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When things get crazy
“The world is a puzzle. There’s no need to make sense out of it.” ~Socrates Sometimes it feels as if the whole world is falling apart. If old Socrates thought his life was a puzzle, I wonder what he’d think of our lives today? The best we can do, at times, is throw our hands in the air and surrender to the chaos — without adding any more to it. Sometimes we can’t save the world or even clean out the whole garage. As any good philosopher will tell you, there are situations beyond our immediate control. But we can always take care of our own little corner of the…
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September and transitions
“It is when we are in transition that we are most completely alive.” – William Bridges September is a month of transitions. A new school year begins; summer activities wind down. As the light changes and temperatures drop, we prepare our homes and gardens for winter. We begin to stock the pantry with everything we need for cool-weather comfort recipes. In one of my workshops, a woman remarked about the bittersweet aspects of autumn. She feels a little sad when fall comes, she said, despite the colorful beauty of the season. I knew exactly what she meant. A reminder of our own aging, late September prepares us for the changes…
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A no-regrets guide to caregiving
“There are only four kinds of people in the world: Those who have been caregivers. Those who are currently caregivers. Those who will be caregivers, and those who will need a caregiver.” ~Rosalyn Carter As our loved ones age — and as we age — caregiving becomes a reality we must face, one way or another. I learned during the first year of my widowed mother’s illness that caregiving duties can take a toll on you, especially if you’re not prepared. Written in retrospect, my “No-regrets Guide to Caregiving” appears this week online in The Oakland Press, and in the September print issue of Vitality. You can read it here.…
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Pain management
“Don’t allow your wounds to transform you into something you are not.” ~Paulo Coehlo It’s easy to let our anger, sadness, or disappointment get the better of us at times. We’re only human. But some folks define themselves by their misfortune. They wear their emotional wounds like a badge of honor and seize every opportunity to throw a pity party. Nobody travels through this life without getting hurt, losing people they love, losing opportunities, and suffering trauma. Sometimes we lose faith in ourselves or others, or we lose our way and have to work harder to find our way back. But we can choose to grow from painful experiences or…
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When life feels too short
Yesterday I attended the visitation for a neighbor’s husband, a man whose life ended too soon following an illness. The funeral home was crowded with family, old neighbors and friends. Other neighbors who’d known Jim for decades — whose children grew up with his — had many good stories and memories to share. Sadly, I learned more about him after he died than I did when he lived a few blocks away from me. Isn’t that the way it often goes? We’ve had too much bad news in our wonderful neighborhood (and our world) lately. And if we’re not mindful, it’s easy to get pulled under by the long, slow…
