FootprintsintheWind.com

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1124

Something’s at stake
a little thing done
a hurtful or kind word
& the world stumbles & falls
irretrievably
or stands & walks to run

Please pass it on.

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Together you are the salt of the earth: The world about us is icy, throw on your salt, help the melting!

:- Doug.

You’re the same age as your friends going into nursing homes. You know things about them, what they like, jokes they get, what you and they lived through: things their kids—another generation—could never understand. Share those things. Love does.

:- Doug.

How do we get to the deeper with a elder, say in an Alzheimer’s setting? What do they love, what did they love, what would make them more comfortable? Brandy on the gums, a grandchild’s hug, a song to sing, a touch on the hand. Our memory touching theirs, sparking theirs. Our moving into their world, with their world. A conversation about…what is on their heart, without shushing, with a lot of “Say more about that, Dad.” Favorite foods, especially what’s not good for them are what’s really good for them: pork chops with greasy gravy, chocolate, ice cream. A baby doll or a wiggly puppy to hold and care for. Flowering plants to tend, not cut flowers to die too soon (what can those possibly say to one in their setting?). What does love do? Do that.

:- Doug.

The people who usually jump to speak
usually do jump to speak
the quiet ones
usually remain quiet
yet we need their thinking with us too.

:- Doug.