Real Talk. We are currently moving through a beloved family member’s experience with dementia. I know there are some of you who have already gone through this process, and there are some who are currently walking the path right along with us. My heart goes out to you all. It’s not at all easy, and it can be all-consuming.
Their care and well-being becomes the central focus of your life and time seems to cease to have meaning for all involved.
This is why Love exists. It is a magical force that bonds us through the hard times. Parents know this force well. It’s also the force that holds us together as individual beings. There are moments in this process where I’ve felt my heart and my cells break apart, but then I see someone looking to me for guidance and root into that Love to move through.
It’s important in all of the day-to-day care taking to make space for our well-being and emotions. We hear this all the time, but it cannot be stressed enough. If we, as the caretakers of the world, are not being fed, nurtured, and are not playing and experiencing life, we are honestly no good to anyone else.
I cannot show up for my loved one depleted. He looks to me for energy, smiles, calmness, and a forbidden cup of coffee. He still remembers that coffee is our special time together, even if he can’t figure out how to make it. Each sip I take with him sitting across the table from me is a blessing. For me, it’s become a gratitude ceremony. And it’s just for today.
We never know what tomorrow will bring. And all we truly have is this present moment. My loved one is teaching me that on a visceral level. I am getting to experience that as his reality shifts in each moment, I have to be able to adapt.
When the Angels said we would be living in a moment to moment paradigm, I didn’t know that this would be part of how it showed up for me. I am so grateful that they’ve been putting us through bootcamp and providing tools and Guidance for this time.
I feel them working through me in each moment, and I know that this is an ability we all have now.
He is truly teaching me to embody my teachings and learnings on a whole new level. Nothing truly prepares us for something like this, but the work we do before it happens and the tools we have to use are what get us through.
This Thanksgiving, I am grateful for all of the faces I share my life with—even those I only see via Zoom. I am grateful for those who’ve sat at Thanksgiving tables with me in the past, and I am grateful for all that I will get to share life and space with in the coming year.
I sincerely hope that you are on that list for the next year!
Wishing you a Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving.
XO
Theresa
