Happy Matriarch’s Day!
Whether you are the mother of children, the mother of ideas, a nurturer of animals or of communities–I’m wishing you a meaningful Mother’s Day. And whether this is a day of celebration or remembrance, of gathering with others or missing someone you love, I hope you will honor yourself wth gifts of radical self-care in whatever form best serves you.
One Poem in Thirty
Each day when I sat down to write, I was aware that I was picking up, in some ways, where my mother had left off. Here’s a poem I wrote to honor all that is left unfinished in each life.
Holding On to Her Dreams: Guest blogger Sharon Pastore shares her story
This post is part of a series about how dreams can support caregivers dealing with Alzheimer’s Disease and other forms of dementia. Start here to read more. When it was time to make a big decision on …
Dreaming into the Twilight Zone
After years of helping to care for my mother, and witnessing the ravages of a disease that stripped her of her memory, identity, and her access to language, and then mourning the loss of the woman who was also one of my closest friends and favorite people, I was eager to learn more about the joy, which at times during my grieving process felt as if it existed on a faraway planet, not right at the center of my 5’4” body—not very far away at all.
The Case of the Missing Bed Sheets
This post is part of a series about how dreams can support caregivers dealing with Alzheimer’s Disease and other forms of dementia. Start here to read more. A dream journey through Alzheimer’s began with a …
Caregivers need care, too, and dreams can help
Dementia and Alzheimer’s leave loved ones in need of support This post is part of a series. Start here to read more. When I was helping to care for my mother during her 10 years …
In the Land of Forgotten Dreams: Walking the Walk
When my mother began to slip into dementia I became one of her caregivers, along with my brother and a handful of devoted paid professionals. Although I’m a self-help author whose job it is to coach others to take good care of themselves and seek support when they need it, in this situation it was hard to find the time and money to attend to my own needs. I found a surprising source of help.
Mother Daughter Dreaming
After dementia, a conversation begins A few years ago, while clearing out my mother’s closets in anticipation of moving her to an Alzheimer’s unit in an assisted living facility, I found some of her diaries. Sitting amongst the pile …
Rats from Heaven
Dispatch from the Department of Synchronicity Dateline: New York City As I stood on the platform waiting for the uptown Q train on a Saturday afternoon in August, I couldn’t help but think about my …
Morning Light
Just as my mother began to slip into the morass of forgetfulness and confusion that we later learned was Alzheimer’s Disease, she wrote the following paragraphs, which I saved along with her other computer files …