Learning to take Small Steps to Big Change

I've decided my blog needs to be more closely aligned with what I want to accomplish than just my values. You can read my older posts about relief, but I've decided I can't tackle the entire world! I can tackle the problems of one little corner of my world, and if everyone else reacts this way, we will all be able to help each other.

Consider what may be the future for us as we age. Right now, an astounding 40 percent of people over 100 years of age reside in long term care facilities. (Omaha World Herald, A Grim Picture for the Elderly) We desperately need to change the way we view our own future and begin to build the kind of community that allows us to stay right in our own spheres of influence.

I foresee a community house on the corner (right in each one's own neighborhood), where each community member can share a gourmet kitchen and other resources, where their best skills and hobbies are enhanced and where people can recover when the doctors and hospitals say they can't go home yet (home is just down the street). Such a community could also provide for health care professionals to live among them.

Imagine the people this idea could help ~

• Parents who must also care for their aging parents.
• Grandparents who must watch grandchildren so their children can work.
• Aging Parents of a disabled child or Disabled care partners for aging parents.
• People who wonder how they will continue a meaningful life if they become unable to stay at home.
• People at risk for long term care, keeping them healthy with regular assistance as needed.
• Health Professionals who need extra support to continue their mission.

We can make this happen. I hope you'll join me!

P.S. I can't upload these images without permission, but you can look at these and get some idea of what co-housing is all about!  Google image search for Co-Housing

Green House Promise of Greater Things To Come!

I have an apology to make. I honestly thought the Green House concept was conceived to be the end all and be all of Culture Change, the bowing to the best possible end for our elders.

One thing that was said today in the Green House workshop in Birmingham energized both Jim and I. We don't have enough life left to worry about anything but doing the same thing Green House adopters in 28 states have done. We can't worry about the consequences of pushing the envelope on outmoded regulations that do nothing but create busy work for our hard working state HHS regulators. Our world needs to change. Our elders deserve nothing less.

That statement? "We're still evolving." Thank you, Robert Jenkins. Thank you, St. Martins in the Pines for hosting this informative session! The weather was fabulous! Thank you, Dr. Thomas, for getting this ball rolling!

I came away with a renewed sense of doing the right thing, of being in the right place at the right time. Of one goal. ONLY the best for our generation and the generations to come.

Jim and I discussed this before we stopped for the night in Nashville, to wait out a blizzard on the way home. We won't stop. We are going to push Culture Change from the rooftops. We are going to do whatever we can.

We will endeavor for the highest form of relief. Jim said to me at dinner, "They told us it wasn't much fun to be the first. The pioneers had arrows in their backs." He paused. "What were those three things that Dr. Thomas wrote in the book [In the Arms of Elders]?"

"Loneliness, Boredom, and Helplessness," I replied. "Yes!" he said. "I'm not going to stop! I'll make them hear the news. I'm good at that."

I am so blessed.

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.