Blog
Instant Health and Happiness Boosters
There is a wonderful book called Instant Health and Happiness Boosters by M.J. Ryan.* It gives the reader tools for understanding where – and how – to pursue happiness. The book is easy to read because of the page-a-day format. The 365 suggestions, made to teach...
Chronic Sorrow and Hope
Ted Bowman, grief educator and author, states that “I am firmly convinced that hope and grief are part of the same stew.” Several examples of why we might have chronic sorrow: People who live with chronic illness, especially a degenerative one, may grieve the loss of...
How Does Caregiving Make You Feel?
Do you ever pause long enough to consider this question Perhaps your greatest feeling is that of overwhelm; being in over your head; boating without a life jacket and afraid of drowning. Maybe you’re too tired, exhausted, and stressed to think about what you’ve gotten...
Caregivers: It Takes A Village
This story illustrates how a person can become a caregiver quite unexpectedly and what it can be like on the caregiver journey. Can you see yourself in this story? What decisions would you make? Imagine that you and your friend are on a lovely hike through the...
Visiting a Family Member Who Has Memory Loss
I recently returned from a trip to Florida where my husband and I stayed with our sister-in-law. We were there to visit my brother-in-law, Frank, daily in a memory care assisted living residence. I balked at taking the trip. As I suspected, it was difficult on us to...
How to Know if You Are a Caregiver
“Caregivers struggle with an inevitable conflict between their loved one’s needs and their own. Giving by the caretaker is not matched by adequate receiving makes eventual burnout a certainty. Effective, sustainable caregiving now and in the future depends on meeting...
Seeds of Kindness
This newsletter is written for caregivers. If not now, at some point in our lives, as Rosalyn Carter states, we are likely to be a caregiver. It is my desire to support you in caring for yourself as you're caring for others. “There are only four kinds of people in the...
