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Thinking about prayer, Part Two: Four for Evelyn—and me, too!
Four simple prayers betray an insight into what I need to think about more.
Should I ‘bother’ God with this? Thinking about prayer, Part One
Of course, every “good and perfect gift” comes from our Heavenly Father. Should I include a dry basement in that category?
Who knows what it really means to serve? For sure, I did not
For several decades I would have claimed to understand service. But these days, I’m coming to understand much more.
The art of giving what’s dearly needed and completely unexpected
I never would have asked these friends for what they’ve given. Could I be so good and gracious to give so generously?
One year later: reflections and a resolve to keep on writing
A friend says my tone is different now than when I first started posting at this blog site one year ago. Maybe. But I’m glad I’ve started chronicling how this journey is affecting us.
There’s really so much to consider, and way too much to tell
A new answer to the popular but perplexing “How are you?”
Lesson from a professional: Let’s keep that left hand strong
Who will I be when my caregiving duties are over? Part of the answer to that rests in how I’m living my life today.
A caregiver’s loneliness is about more than being alone, Part 1
“The evenings are long, and I can feel so lonely.” I realize I share his experience, but for a completely different reason.
Not all, but not nothing: one caregiver’s quest for balance
The caregiver cannot maintain his former life completely. But he cannot and should not give it all up. How does he find balance between the two extremes?
Why ‘Monday Meditations’? Fruit from a long-term relationship
Today I’m celebrating new fruit from a relationship that began many years ago.
Finding ‘peace and poise’ amid many reminders that the past is past
“There are two words we don’t honor enough. One is ‘over’ and the other is ‘next.’”
One caregiver considers another new year: resignation and hope
“Oh what a foretaste of glory divine.” This year I’ll settle for the foretaste while nurturing hope for glory someday.
Welcome, old friend! We’re glad you’re here, even with the changes
We’re glad to see her again, but I’ve decided I just can’t give Christmas all she may want from me. And that’s OK.
Trying to remember a friend’s simple advice: ‘Live your life!’
“Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” I’m trying, I’m really trying.
At Christmas, too: Everything’s the same, and everything’s different
Through the decades, we stay the same, but our circumstances change. We approach life as we always have, even though life has become so different. Christmas is the perfect example of this.
Only slowly am I learning to embrace these days as privilege
I have lived a privileged life . . . even now. Especially now. That’s what I’m coming to realize.
Thinking about thanks with a gallery of reasons I’m grateful
Despite the difficulties in our days, here’s a gallery—just in time for Thanksgiving—to help me express a few ways I’m thankful.
Since we are our memory, what does this mean for her—and for me?
“We ARE our memory,” a friend said to me. And this adds another layer of sadness—and resolve—as I watch my wife’s memory fade and falter.
So many ‘last times,’ with more than a few moments still to savor
“I’ve eaten the last thing my mother will ever bake,” just the first of a long list of “last times” we could write. But “last times” are not unique to Alzheimer’s caregivers.
21 ways a 5-year-old and an Alzheimer’s patient are so much alike
I thought about home the whole time I was away. And it dawned on me that, although my grandson is great in every way, caring for a preschooler has definite similarities to my caregiving duties in Ohio.