As our nation celebrates freedom, I find myself thinking about a different kind of freedom. There is freedom in saying the words that matter most: “I love you”. “Thank You.” “Forgive me.” “I Forgive you.” Four words that mean so much to the people who we will leave behind. There is freedom in setting down old burdens that have become too heavy to carry. There is freedom in accepting help from those who love you and allowing them the privilege of caring for you. You ma

The Fourth of July is a day of celebration. Flags wave, families gather, children laugh, and fireworks explode. There are picnics, community celebrations, parades, and in some churches, special worship services. Yet for many widows, myself included, this is a day of loneliness. Lee was a veteran, and we celebrated Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. In our motorcycle days, we put a pop-up tent in the Bushtec (trailer), and packed a picnic supper in the cooler. We were off to

Anxiety about the future, or regret over current and past struggles, can make caregiving even more difficult. Ongoing stress can activate the sympathetic nervous system—the fight, flight, or freeze response—leaving us feeling tense, overwhelmed, or on edge. To gain more control, we need to reinforce the parasympathetic nervous system. There are many ways to accomplish this, but the simplest is the sensory grounding technique: 5-4-3-2-1. Start by taking three deep, cleansing

For those of us who are in our senior years or are facing the end of life due to illness, the last stage of life offers a choice: Integrity vs. Despair. We need to be meaningful in the lives of those we love and care for, even as our capabilities are diminished. We are no longer able to climb a ladder to change the battery in the smoke detector or stand on a step stool to reach the upper shelves in our kitchen cabinets. And, often, the need for assistance increases until we b