On a gray, rainy Monday afternoon, as I sat with my mom in a consultation appointment with her new...
Category: Finding Meaning
Addressing the spiritual needs of caregivers.
Giving Care to Oneself and Another
There is a song we often sing in my community ‘Be gentle with yourself, my friend, my friend/ Be...
Knowing art therapy but not knowing art therapy
My sketches were always faint lines in pencil. I loved sketching trees in a wide diversity of...
Laughter Breaks Trauma’s Grim Spell
Reader’s Digest used to tell us each month that “laughter is the best medicine.” Drawing on folk...
Toxic Positivity Mongers in Dementialand
Years ago I was dealing with ongoing anxiety issues when a friend told me, “Just go to your happy...
Navigating the transformation from loved one to caregiver
[I]n the twenty-first century, becoming a caregiver is a transformation that comes at us because...
How I Embraced Vulnerability to Tell the Story of Becoming Starlight
Writing a book. To be quite honest, the thought had never entered my mind; I’d never written...
The Fraught Culture of Online Mourning
My mother died shortly after 4 a.m. in the pitch black of a November morning. By roughly 8:30 a.m....
From Gloom To Gratitude: 8 Skills To Cultivate Joy
You can be taught to have a more positive attitude. And — if you work at it — a positive outlook...
10 Rules We Can Learn From Aging Parents Now
We watch elderly parents make choices we swear we would NEVER do. Yet so many of our aging loved...
A Life Outside of Alzheimer’s
My husband and I are currently under contract on a beautiful house here in Florida. For the first...
The Trap House-Busting Vigilante of Pine Ridge Reservation
After Julie “Mama Julz” Richards’s own family was nearly destroyed by addiction, fighting back...
Changing ‘the tragedy narrative’: Why a growing camp is promoting a more joyful approach to Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer's is now the diagnosis Americans fear most. Fewer than half of patients diagnosed with...
Losing my dad to dementia
https://youtu.be/ICo3lpQS2ck Ken jr wanted to share this video of him and his dad with our...
Raising Your Kids With A Giving Heart, Despite Chronic Illness
Ashton’s passion for helping families and other children at the Ronald McDonald House is inspired...
Growing Together
Donna Thompson and Zachary White have been busy working on their upcoming book, due out in June,...
Coping with Cancer Caregiver PSTD
Coming down from taking care of someone with cancer is like an addict going cold turkey. Every day...
Here if you need me
When fighting on behalf of the father you love, who do you become? When fighting on behalf of...
The most challenging job I’ve had to do
My toughest job with the most responsibility is as my husband’s caregiver. It’s not what I signed...
Inheritance delayed
01 Do I Know You? R.L. Gibson 16” x 20” Xerography (mixed media) 2014 02 But Now I See R.L. Gibson...
Tragedy in a love story
Being put in the position to make a life or death decision is something I would have never dreamed...
Rethinking Language about Aging
Words matter. The words we choose convey how a person is valued and whether that person is seen...
When the caregiver needs a caregiver
Sonia Singh talks to her friend Anjli. Anjli is now caregiver for her mom, who took care of her...
Your most valuable possession
The release of Disney Pixar’s The Incredibles 2 seemed a perfect time to revisit an important...