On Aging: Headlights in the Fog

My writing desk sits in the corner between two casement windows on the second floor of our home. When I look up and out the window in front of me, I sometimes feel like I’m in a tree-house, especially on summer days when the full branches of an ornamental cherry tree practically obscure my view. In winter, those same branches are bare of leaves, but filled with chattering finches, junco’s, sparrows, and cardinals, feasting on the dark red cherries that sustain them during the cold weather. 

But this morning my view is hampered by gray wooly fog, a blanket of cotton laid over the horizon

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Life In General: Passing It Down

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In the process of all that downsizing, clutter busting, junk clearing, and reorganizing we did when we moved three years ago, I often asked myself whether an item was something that might one day be passed down to future generations. I asked it about china and paintings and collectible figurines. I asked it about Christmas ornaments and record albums and books. I asked it about jewelry and electronics and furniture.

Truthfully, very little made that cut.

Life In General: In Search of Meaningful Entertainment

“Can we go back to the Disney House now?”

My grandson Connor asked this question quite frequently last week when we were in Disney World to celebrate his fourth birthday, usually after an hour or two away from our Vacation Club resort at Old Key West. The two-bedroom apartment did seem like home, with it’s spacious living area, fully eqippmet kitchen, and covered balcony overlooking a quiet lagoon where ducks and herons paddled happily along its banks. Disney encourages that feeling with a large “Welcome Home” sign at the entrance and by training it’s staff to greet you with a cherrful Welcom Home each time you enter.

Write On Wednesday: Nourishing Words

I’ve been obsessed with food for the past 18 months. 

Perhaps I should say I’ve been obsessed with other people’s food: for months and months one of my dogs was so fussy about eating that he made himself sick. My mom’s diminishing appetite led to anemia and dehydration, causing a fainting spell that sent her to the ER. Now my husband has been prescribed a strict low-sodium diet, which involves learning to cook and eat in an entirely new way.

I spend a lot of time researching various diets, planning meals, coaxing those who aren’t hungry and don’t want to eat while attempting to appease the one who is very hungry and can’t eat the things he wants. With all this concern about food comes anxiety. With anxiety comes loss of appetite (at least it does for me). 

In all the confusion about making sure everyone else eats correctly, I’ve been failing to eat correctly myself. And isn’t that always the way. Those of us whose primary focus is caregiving often forget to take care of ourselves primarily.

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On Aging: Stuck in the Middle With You (and you, and you, and you...)

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There’s a ton of us stuck in the middle together. Even just among myself and my friends, it would take more than the fingers and toes on both sides of my body to count the number of us who are trying to balance caring for aging parents with the needs of our own personal relationships, our children, our grandchildren. 

Not to mention, our own very personal needs and desires.

Balance is the key word to maintaining our equilibrium in the middle of this see-saw. It always feels a little precarious for me, and in the past week, one end of mine came to a thud on the ground.