Random Thoughts

Dictionary.com deinfes nostalgia as " a   wistful   desire   to   return   in   thought   or   in   fact   to   a   former  time   in   one's   life" For the last few weeks, I've been feeling nostalgic for those months before my father passed away. I know, it's crazy. Still my mind seems to wander back there when I least expect it. Sometimes it feels like a sucker punch, other times, a simple remembrance, not sad or painful, of something that I connect with Dad. Today it started with a post on my friend Wholly Jeanne's blog and this picture: Picture by Wholly Jeanne, http://thebarefootheart.com/ A tin box. That's all it took to be transported to a former time in my life. It reminded me of the green file box, probably pilfered from the Navy 50 years ago (does that make it an antique or evidence in a court of law?) that sat among the other geegaws on my father's desk. The box was a holdover, ac...

"Today, we gather to be reassured that God hears the lamenting and bitter weeping of Mother America because so many of her children are no more. Let us now seek that assurance in prayer for the healing of our grief stricken hearts, for the souls and sacred memory of those who have been lost. Let us also pray for divine wisdom as our leaders consider the necessary actions for national security, wisdom of the grace of God that as we act, we not become the evil we deplore.”* I was in Mrs. Carden's 6th grade classroom when the news that John Kennedy had been shot was announced over the loudspeaker. A collective gasp escaped the mouths of children too young, too naive to understand what had just happened. I tried to hide my tears on the bus ride home. Neighborhood boys made wise cracks and pointed fingers at nerds like me who cried for something they couldn't comprehend. I wept as the boys postured. I watched in horror as Walter Cronkite reported first Martin Luther King's ...

"As care givers it is so easy to be caught up in the activity of giving care that life moves on and we are less aware of our own feelings, memories, desires, prayers. A picture, a song grabs us, captures us and at least for a few moments or minutes we honor ourselves through reflecting our personal memories. " Jack Cook Dad needs new glasses. He can get them free from the Navy. Despite the price of gas going up, he opted for hard-earned (25+years) and no cost over right-down-the-road at the mall. (Does anyone but me see a strange kind of synchronicity in discussing hospice and getting new glasses all in the same week?) We've been barking at each other a lot over the last couple of days. Elizabeth Kubler Ross might say we're experiencing the anger stage of grief. More likely we've both just realized that we are running out of time to master the fine art of communication so we keep trying. I've found, however, when we hop in the Luther-mobile, turn the radio up ...

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. " Leo Buscaglia I was awakened this morning by the phone ringing. It was late enough that I should have already been up an moving, yet still early enough to start my day with that shot of adrenaline that moves one from a deep sleep to immediate action in the blink of an eye. Phone calls in the wee morning hours almost always mean an emergency of some sort. Either that or someone calling from another time zone who forgets to add or subtract the hours as the case may be. Or, now that I've learned about "drunk dialing" from AntiJen (http://antijen.blogspot.com), I guess the nerve shattering jingle need not be an emergency, just the musing of someone under the influence of too much Apple Jacks and Sauvingnon Blanc. My all time best experience with an early morning phone ...

"The heart, like the mind, has a memory. And in it are kept the most precious keepsakes." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow From all I've been reading about middle-aged memory loss, it's apparently not a big deal. It's not uncommon. And, even though Iworry that forgetting where I put my keys is an indication that I am on the fast train to full-blown dementia, researchers are proving this is not the case. "Even in the 65-and-older age group, only 15% of people suffering from mild cognitive impairment will go on to develop Alzheimer's disease." * We boomers, who have long since passed our babyhood, are overstressed, don't always get enough exercise, and eat foods that are not good for our mental or physical muscles. Many of us our sandwiched between caring for (once a mother always a mother) our children and/or grandchildren who once flew the coop but now, for whatever reason, think there's no place like Grandma's, and our parents who can no longe...

"A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness." Elbert Hubbard * I need to be careful what I say about losing my memory because if the Law of Attraction is real then putting all my fearful thoughts into the universe could hurt me way more than being honest about the loss of my short term memory. Still I worry; and when I worry, I write. When I was young, I prided myself on my ability to remember things. Perhaps I couldn't always put a name with a face, but at least I remembered one or the other! Numbers were my specialty. There for awhile I could recite all my former addresses down to the zipcode; plus most of my phone numbers. I can still recite my ex's social security number even though there is absolutely no reason for this little tidbit of knowledge to be retaining space in my brain when remembering to put the ice cream in the freezer, not the vegetable drawer would serve me so much better. One of my best memorie...

There are days I have trouble remembering things. Sometimes it's relatively little things like where I put my keys or glasses. On other occasions I have trouble recalling where I parked my car. It kind of scares me when I realize the high pitched squeal I'm hearing in the back of the house is the tea kettle I left on HI in the kitchen. Oops! I've heard from a lot of people recently that forgetting is something that goes along with the agin process. It has been explained away by stress, menopause, medications, misfiring brain synapses and, of course, the one thing all of worry about, early onset dementia. I'm glad to know it's not just me. That little piece of knowledge doesn't help me find things, but it's good to know I'm not alone in my forgetfullness. I read an article in Newsweek that there is a test that can determine if you have Alzheimers. The point being that if you start medication as soon as possible you can slow, not cure, the disease. I'v...