When I was 16, I made a decision for a life reboot. I chose to go to military school! As a 16 year old, I was living a pretty normal life for a suburban kid being raised in the ’60s. I was being raised in a middle class neighborhood in northern New Jersey, going to [...]
Easier said than done, right? Well, maybe not. Working with family caregivers, I see a wide range of attitudes and emotions that exist within this large community of very special people. What I find especially interesting is that some family caregivers, faced with similar responsibilities, are happier and have a more positive attitude. Consequently, they [...]
Several years ago, seven buddies and I went on a golf trip to Scotland. It was wonderful, a lot of great golf on some of the most majestic golf courses in the world. But the real treat was our camaraderie, giving each other a hard time both on and off the course. We had a [...]
I have been a family caregiver for 10 years. And if there is one emotion that I have experienced throughout this time, it is guilt. And it's one complex emotion. First, there is both "healthy" and "unhealthy" guilt. Healthy guilt is an emotion that can be very constructive and help shape us as people, especially [...]
Life is unfair. Life is fragile. Life is short. How many times have you heard those phrases? How many times has something happened in your life that has confirmed them? And how many times after incidents of sorrow were you determined to have a more in-the-moment life -- only to forget this new philosophy in [...]
Like most kids growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, I played a lot of sports. After school. On weekends. In the rain. In the snow. Even in the dark. Over nearly 20 years of playing organized sports, I must have had at least 10 coaches tell my teammates and me, "There is no 'I' [...]
…what it means to be caring in a soulful way! Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, we have seen so many examples of heroic behavior. My God, just look at our healthcare first responders… doctors, nurses, physician assistants, hospital administrators, hospital maintenance personnel, lab couriers, EMS technicians, our police and firefighters, and every touch [...]
I have a saying, “If you don’t know where you’re going you’ll never know when you get there.” . If you are anything like my family you are rolling your eyes and saying thinking “I have a perfect place for you to go! ” !. Whoa, not so fast, let me explain… In the past [...]
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has all of us thinking and talking about the best way to protect family members, friends and ourselves. There is no group of people where this is causing more consternation than within the family caregiver community. First, before we even get started with the focus of this blog...building an emotional connection [...]
I have been a family caregiver for my wife, Jill, since 2002. During this time, I have learned a lot about myself…some good things and some, well let’s just say, areas where I could use some work. Few of us ever think about being a family caregiver before the need actually arises. Acquiring the family [...]