Posts

Not Exactly a Role Reversal

(Time Period: Toward the end of Mom’s first year in memory care.)

What is Happening?

“Now the roles are reversed.” It’s a statement that is often made with regard to caring for elderly parents and there is something to it. We are trying to describe what’s going on, to make sense of the changes that are occurring. Our parents need help taking care of things around the house, managing their finances, or deciphering medical diagnoses and treatments. We declare, “It’s our turn to take care of them.”

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You Have Permission

Need a Permission Slip?

Remember raising your hand in class and asking to go to the “lavatory”? (There’s a word you don’t hear much anymore.) Perhaps now you are the one signing permission slips for class trips and missed days at school, yet throughout life and even as adults, the need for permission remains, sometimes under the surface of our awareness. Read more

Exercise Your Freedom

Awake To Freedom

A few weeks ago a friend of mine was in a serious car accident.  The scene involved a horrific traffic jam, a helicopter, ambulances, and sadly, a fatality.  Fortunately, my friend received only minor scrapes and bruises.  A week later, she told me that she now had complete clarity about how to handle a business dilemma with which she had been grappling in prior weeks.  With her renewed comprehension of how precious life is, she realized that she had the power to propose her own terms on this business deal rather than accept the less attractive conditions that were on the table. Read more

Salute to Freedom

What is Freedom?

Is freedom something bestowed or declared?  Is it earned, claimed, or innately present?  Ask ten people and you will receive as many answers.  In the personal realm, we measure freedom in terms of our own health, our work, our choices, time, finances, and obligations.  In the larger context of society and the world, freedom is measured in terms of governance, security, economics, religion, and self-expression.  There is also freedom as it exists within the landscape of our minds and hearts. Read more