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“Weeping in Public Places” by Donna Thomson
Editor’s note: Today’s post is a poignant story from Donna Thomson, who is an active blogger about issues relating to caregiving on her website “The Caregivers’ Living Room” (www.donnathomson.com). She...
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Art Activity: Paintings of Children
I love looking at family pictures with my elderly clients. There they are, children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren, playing with a favorite toy or eating birthday cake or even just...
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What Matters More?
What matters more, the word or the image? What matters more, my life or this breath? Perhaps the heart beats in the mind as well as the chest. Perhaps this cat resting beside my heart feels soft to the...
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The Town of Kindness
A Story in Memory of Nurse Julie Editor’s note: I wrote the original of this story many years before meeting my nurse-mentor, Julie. She died in October, 2013, after a long journey with cancer. Julie...
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A Story About My Hands
Editor’s note: Today I am re-posting my first article for Joyous Paradox in honor of the blog’s second birthday coming up in December 2013. I’m drinking my coffee out of a commercial mug rather than a...
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Stove Reminder™: A Home Safety Tool for Your Kitchen by Alan Majer
Editor’s note: Today’s post gives us a glimpse into the world of inventors who develop products to help individuals maintain their independence at home. I invited Canadian entrepreneur Alan Majer to...
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In Honor of All Veterans
. Editor’s note: The image of this old man’s hand is especially dear to me because of the elderly veterans whom I’ve known in my work as a home-care companion. The official 1995 Veterans Day poster...
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Goodnight, Father Nelson Mandela
As Nelson Mandela dies, I think about my mother, Lisette. Even in my saddest goodbyes, how often do I think about someone I love! How can we explain this, the lessons we carry with us from another’s...
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Christmas 2013
.Filed under: Activities for Elders, Art, Music, and Creativity, Happiness, Poetry, Spirituality and Religion, Visual Art and Posts with Illustrations Tagged: Christmas, Christmas tree, poetry,...
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So Glad You Are Having a Baby: A Gallery of Family Portraits for Thanksgiving
“So glad you are having a baby,” I wrote to our daughter and son-in-law when I heard the news. Our granddaughter, the adorable Ava, is now six months old. We’ll see her at Christmas. In the meantime,...
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In Memory of My Mother
January 14, 2015 Today I am remembering my mother, Lisette Berglund Hyde, who died four years ago on the day before her 102nd birthday. She loved being outdoors, gardening and walking the dog; baking...
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Paintings for a Snowy Day
Tuesday, January 27, 2015 Editor’s Note: I’m at home today, watching the snow fall and looking at paintings of snow scenes in Wikimedia Commons. Why not share these with someone you love? You could use...
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Winter Caregiver Prayer
Dear Winter Caregiver, my Northern Hemisphere sleet-and-snow companion, you sliding on tiny, bouncing, translucent balls of ice in the Stop ‘N Shop parking lot, on your way to collect loaves and fishes...
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Hot Valentine’s Day
It’s Valentine’s Day. Things are heating up in our house. 1. Hot kisses. 2. Hot food. 3. Warm cat. 4. Hot you, man. 5. The body, beautiful at any age. 6. Hot me, woman. 7. The body, beautiful at any...
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The Anatomy of Breathing
Movement Modalities: Dance, Housework, Breathing If dance is the poetry of motion, then writing about dance can be a way of entering our embodied experience more fully, the way a poet enters each word...
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Dear Emma: Snappy Letters to My Alter Ego
Editor’s note: From time to time I share my writing process with readers of the Joyous Paradox blog. Today’s post is about my literary character Emma Davies, who began showing up in my notebook when my...
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Expressing Hope, Saying Goodbye
I think you know how this goes. Someone you care about loses someone they love. You write a note, send a card. “I’m so sorry he died last night,” you write, trying to make your penmanship more tender...
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Dementia Talk
Editor’s note: What’s the most popular post on Joyous Paradox, my elder-care blog? How to Say Hello to Someone with Alzheimer’s Disease ranks way at the top. As a professional caregiver, I’ve had the...
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Washing His Bright Hands (I’ll Fly Away)
Mmm, hmm. Mmm, hmm. Song’s in my breath this morning, dear heart. “Some bright morning, when this life is over, I’ll fly away.” Here’s the basin, dear heart; here’s the soap, the towels. “To that home...
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Notebook: Angels
Editor’s note: “Angels” is an excerpt from a short story about family caregiving that I’m writing for my book, Rest. I began it this fall in Eson Kim‘s Fiction I class at GrubStreet Creative Writing...
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