by lori | May 15, 2018 | Acceptance, Being an empath, Culture, Essays, Grief and Loss, Imagination, Strength in Real Life
I’m heartbroken (nauseous actually) about all the lives lost in Gaza again this week and our role in it. Thank you to my Jewish American and Palestinian friends for keeping this sorrow and pain in my line of site. Thanks to you, I’m doubling down on... by lori | Apr 5, 2018 | Acceptance, Creating, Essays, Getting Lost, Grief and Loss, Stillness, Story, Strength in Real Life, Unapologetically Odd, Wayfinding, Wonder, Writing
We’ve had one hell of a fall and winter here. We helped Mom move into a memory care home where she’ll have the round-the-clock, large community support she now needs. We’ve been moving with our own grief and helping each other, and Mom and Dad, with... by lori | Jul 25, 2017 | Acceptance, Essays, Grace, Imagination, Play and Magic, Story, Unapologetically Odd, Wayfinding
In late February 2017 before the gray skies here on Whidbey became blue, I looked out the window and saw a poem, about a dead tree, in the middle of the just-barely-beginning-to-bud forest. I called the poem Life 101. I eventually saw it for what it was: a poem for my... by lori | May 24, 2017 | Acceptance, Benefits, Essays, Grace, Imagination, Impacts, Learning, Letting Go, Play and Magic, Research, Self-organizing groups, Story, Successful Groups, Writing
My mentor and friend Bernie has been told by doctors that he has a year left to live. Thanks to Bernie, I’m now aware that I—like him—have a choice here. Each new day now, actually, I have this choice: will I choose Bitterness, Sweetness, or Bittersweetness as... by lori | Jul 7, 2016 | Acceptance, Alzheimer's, Essays, Grace, Story
For the past three months, I’ve been an almost daily care partner for our mom, who is moving into late-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Our family has been living with the disease for a decade now. Dad has been caregiving for mom, mostly on his own, for more than a decade... by lori | Nov 19, 2015 | Acceptance, Alzheimer's, Books, Care Partnering, Caregiving, Essays, Grace, Story, Wayfinding
My mom Linda was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease by a doctor in 2007. She was just 60 years old. Mom, dad Jim, sister Jen, and I all knew that something was going seriously wrong with Mom for several years before that diagnosis. Memory troubles showed up. Anxiety...