by lori | Jan 21, 2015 | Aging Gratefully, Alzheimer's, Caregiving, Epic tales, Love, Poetry, Women
1. The Question Why do you feel the need to make the rift in our family all about your mom’s disease? You know too well that’s not the case at all. damn good question thanks for asking 2. The Life Raft for 35 years I experienced our family as 98% love 2%... by lori | Jan 20, 2015 | Alzheimer's, Beauty, Caregiving, Poetry
before you mourn your mom smiling out from behind the gauze of her disease, remember beauty will not sit down before you expect your dad to be reasonable, to let go of both mom and who he is this instant, remember beauty will not sit down before you ask your cousin,... by lori | Jan 8, 2015 | Alzheimer's, Caregiving, Here and now, Love, Poetry, Women, Work
This just-messing-around, poetic-calisthenics poem is a tribute to the work of poet Jericho Brown: specifically, his poem Heart Condition, the first poem of his that I happened upon. Go find it. Read it. You won’t be sorry. Better yet, buy one of his books. Here... by lori | Nov 26, 2014 | Caregiving, Epic tales, Here and now, Poetry
I. with tears, cloaked in half truths clinging to fear and rage the adults turned scattered to earth’s farthest corners from great distance built walls weapons did battle. Fucking grownups. II. Left behind on wide open plains Winter’s abandoned children... by lori | Nov 25, 2014 | Caregiving, Essays, Forgiveness, Grace, Wayfinding
Turning away from the deepest suffering means turning away from the deepest grace. That’s the heart of this post. Several friends and I have asked ourselves the same question this past year: How do I keep an open heart while standing in the depths of pain, of... by lori | Nov 21, 2014 | Caregiving, Here and now, Poetry, Women
I. Goodbye family who cannot bear the weight of me. Goodbye family whose deep pain my own frame cannot bear. We hung on for so long to outdated expectations to what we used to be failing each other, sinking our intertwined souls until it sickened, almost killed our...