Some great quotes about aging in my email...

They weren't all aging, but I did pick out a few I liked...

I don't feel old. I don't feel anything until noon. Then it's time for my nap.

- Bob Hope

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We could certainly slow the aging process down if it had to work its way through Congress.

- Will Rogers

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Maybe it's true that life begins at fifty, but everything else starts to wear out, fall out or spread out.

- Phyllis Diller

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By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he's too old to go anywhere.

- Billy Crystal

If we can't laugh and enjoy living, maybe it's time we found another life!

Hugs, Karen

Doing nothing...

From ChangingAging.org, this blog post about doing nothing is great! I love the pic of the sunset on the waters.

http://changingaging.org/2011/01/30/do-nothing-for-two-minutes/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+changingaging%2FUkmf+%28ChangingAging.org%29

And Al Power promoted a blog about mindfulness, I'll put it on a blogroll on here.

It's healthy to relax - but it's also healthy to take a minute to get up and move about! I a "Gadget" on my desktop that lets me know I have been at my computer for an hour! It's time to go do something, anything!

Live healthy! Stay in touch! I have a paper I wrote that'll be great for this blog!

Karen

There's vision, and then there's MISSION

I am an avid follower of Dr. Thomas' blog, ChangingAging.org. Today he posted a call for more social networking revolving around Culture Change.

Most of you who know me, know that I am planning to build a community that includes as many of the tools and people and design as is necessary to make sure that people do not have to age away from the people they love, and need around them.

I plan to escape the winter snow of Nebraska in a couple of weeks, for sunny (? I can hope, this year) Alabama, and a Green House workshop. I am keeping at this project because I must. My heart is so full of the need, I don't want to see any more of the types of nursing homes that don't really want to consider themselves "home." They can call themselves "home" all they want... it doesn't make it without a true effort to restore the things their residents lose when they move in!

So, here it is...

Vision:

We affirm quality of life, in all stages of life. We will carry each other’s burden ~ together.

Mission:

We affirm quality of life, in all stages of life. We will carry each other’s burden ~ together. We believe quality of life includes these important goals for all our community members.

~ Maintaining a Healthy Spirit

~ Maintaining a Healthy Mind

~ Maintaining a Healthy Body

We will meet the challenges we face, knowing we can. Proper people, proper tools, and proper planning will make our community successful. To maintain a healthy spirit, we will recognize the value each community member brings to our community, sharing with each other the necessary tools for living and the necessary companionship to bless our hearts and souls. To maintain a healthy mind, we will ask each community member to actively engage in volunteerism, giving where we can to whom we can. We will engage each other in games and hobbies, enjoying each day to the fullest possible. To maintain a healthy body, we will ask each community member to make full use of the tools provided, sharing with one another the necessary community facilities for walking, stretching and strength. We will encourage and exhort each other in all these things.

Inspiration often comes from personal experience. I have two fond memories, both of whom passed away in 2009. My mother...












and my husband's aunt.


The memories of their smiles, their wisdom and their love for living will guide me well as I go forward!!

Gerontology, Here I come!

I'm in my second quarter of study for Long Term Care Administration, to make sure I am familiar with the ins and outs of the field, since we want to build a community that combines the best of both worlds.

I think that much of what has come so far is a beautiful reach. While everyone finds themselves at the end at some point, and ready to place their hand in the hand of God, our hands should be able to reach beyond the veil of illness or disability. We should provide a daily, comforting presence to family and friends, just as if we had always lived in a small town as pioneers.

I've been blessed. Another quarter of 4.0 grades is within reach! I think I've spent a good 31 years away from a field I was destined to be in, and I have been brought back, full circle. This "affinity" for the field has made me decide to continue on as a gerontologist - studying for the best of aging well, and acting on what I've learned.

Aging well, to me, doesn't mean "staying young", but being young at heart! Attitude, seeking quality within our lives each day, and offering a piece of yourself to the world at large. We cannot fail to make life better for one, because when we do, we make life better for all.

Blessings! Hugs! Karen

Relief as we age...

One of my long time projects is about to get another big boost. In April 2010, we incorporated Cord of Three Strands Care Center, a potential non-profit, in an attempt to move toward a community that combines continuing care strategies and aging in place. This month, I signed up for classes as a long term care administrator.

Unfortunately, as many ideas that come up, none has met the goals I have in mind. We will keep looking, most likely to build the community ourselves.

One of the things I must keep in our community is the ability of family caregivers to remain close by. Family caregivers, if they do not already share a living space with their elderly family member, have so many issues to deal with. The cost of being in-between for them often means something suffers. If not quality time with their children, it's quality time with their elder or their spouse, because they cannot do a task to help one without worrying about the welfare of the other.

Very little time is left for themselves.

A care community that builds on the family caregiver's willingness to be there for their loved ones (all of them) needs to be able to provide tools, people and planning that enhances the relationships built among people who have a like mind to sharing problems as they get older.

That's Cord of Three Strands.

It will be so. Amen.

Praying for Relief

Let me be relief, Lord.

Relief to the friend who has lost his or her way. Relief to the heart of a nation needing help, but not finding it from her government - because there are so many voices crying for help. Let me join with others of a similar heart, who know the answer is in the hard work and prayers of the pioneer and native american who together offered help to a peaceful neighbor. Those who know the answer is not in what the government can do for the people, but what each individual in society can offer up to help our nation heal.

Our society needs help. More than I alone can give. Our world needs help, more than I alone can give. Lift my aching soul, and my paltry offering of prayer, my dream of helping... just a little, and make it large. Make it an offering that gains a following, an offering that is imbued with Your energy and power. Make it strong, make it miraculous, make it a wave that will renew, revive, and bless this world. Help those who are hurting so much that they cannot find the energy to pray for others. Give them the healing they so richly deserve, so they may turn and offer you praise, and to pray for our nation, for its healing, and our world, for its healing.

We can't demand so much that there isn't enough to go around. We have to start working smarter, and praying harder.

We must not expect more of our society, but expect society's money to be spent efficiently - spend more doing it correctly and efficiently now, instead of spending more money doing it over again next year.

Dear Lord, make my small offering powerful. Make my friend's prayer powerful. Make it the change we need in this nation. In God We Trust. Make it true, for everyone.

Sense of Community vs. Sense of Government

A conversation I had today brought to mind the things that we do for relief. At one time, churches and religious organizations were allowed to provide well for their constituents, by allowing the pastor or leader to have a home provided to them, as well as food and other care by the community. Doctors, Nurses, Teachers, and Pastors were all welcome in the community that needed them. Communities hurting for public servants will provide for them, and today, even, you see "community policing" where police officers are offered a home at no interest if they will locate in certain neighborhoods.

Many of our public servants are expected to provide extra to the community in terms of taxes (their barter is taxed), and extra insurance, along with the inevitable extra time that social service requires.

How can we do this? Expect the Doctor or Nurse, Police officer, Pastor (you fill in the blank) to put in 120 hours a week, and pay the community for the effort they put in?

Something is wrong with this picture.

At one time, we took care of our public servants, and they took care of the poorest in our communities. They spent the hours, and we spent the effort to make sure they were comfortable.

Now we put our public servants through the wringer, and coddle the poorest of our community with the money we once paid our public servants to care.

Is it any wonder our emergency rooms, missions, mental hospitals and prisons are full to the brim?

Is it any wonder we have lost our way?

It is time to redirect our energies. It is time to realize that taking care of relief means giving those who can the means to do. Those who can listen, give and care - need the means of action.

To some extent, this is a clarification of my feeling that the social worker would rather say "yes, I can help" than push a thousand pieces of paper across a desk all day, and say "No, you don't qualify until you reach a certain level of bottom of the barrel."

Our public servants need to be thanked. Not just personally, but collectively. A community needs to say "Here is your home."

"Here is your meal."

Saying "Here is our money, and you can pay taxes, too," opens up a whole new world. It becomes easy to say,

"I hired you. You have to do what I say. You have to work for the money I pay. If you don't do the job right, I'll take you to court and take your money away. I'll fire you. I'll..."

Tell me that's not true. Tell me parents don't go to their child's teacher and demand their precious little one pass to the next grade, even though it might be better for the child to learn. Tell me that pastors and doctors and social workers aren't overburdened with the demand to prove their worth.

You can't.

You know I'm telling the truth.

Demand that we start doing things right. Get the insurance companies out of the people business, and let them insure things. Let people be people. Let those who make human error be held harmless, and let those who would harm a community be held responsible.

Expect the best, and respect the best.