We know that having friends can help with reducing risk of dementia in old age, but what do people with small (or nonexistent ) social circles do? They can take up leisure activities that get the brain working. Researchers in Australia have found that people who participate in active leisure
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Politics and its Discontents: Putting Things Into Perspective
With the passing of our beloved Queen, an icon of selfless dedication we fondly thought would go on for much longer than her 96 years, mortality is on the minds of many – especially if they have ‘achieved’ a certain stage of life. A friend sent me the following, which
Continue readingScripturient: We’re Doomed. Doomed, I tell you.
While walking our dog recently, we encountered another couple “our age” (somewhere between 65 and 90) also walking their dog. While the two pets sniffed and frolicked, we chatted with them (at a safe distance, of course). And, as might be expected during a lengthy pandemic, one of the first
Continue readingScripturient: When Did I Become My Parents?
When Did I Become My Parents? When did I stop listening to new music, and change the dial to something familiar: oldies, classic rock; comfortable tunes? When did I stop driving a standard, shifting gears with practiced precision, and buy an automatic, with power windows, and heated seats? When did
Continue readingScripturient: Musings on Computer Gaming, Storytelling, and Seniors
Every day, for an hour or two, I kill demons. Or I build houses and shopping malls. Sometimes I command armies in battle. Or fly an airplane into a foreign airport. I might manage a hospital, build a settlement on Mars, lead a band of survivors after a nuclear holocaust,
Continue readingScripturient: On growing old
“We truly can’t praise the love and pursuit of wisdom enough,” wrote Marcus Tullius Cicero in one of his last works, How to Grow Old (De Senectute; aka On Aging or On Old Age), “since it allows a person to enjoy every stage of life free from worry.” “Ancient wisdom
Continue readingScripturient: Back to Montaigne
When I find myself in times of trouble, I go back to read Montaigne. Seeking words of wisdom, Read some more… (to the tune of Let It Be, with apologies to the Beatles) I was up late these last few nights reading Michel de Montaigne into the wee, dark hours.
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: When a Real Grade 6 Class Moves Into A Nursing Home
I’ve blogged before about the Eden Alternative approach to eldercare. I’ve blogged before about the benefits of benefits of bringing children into long-term care homes. But I’ve never blogged about an elementary class of students moving into an Eden Alternative seniors’ home! This morning I hopped in the car with
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: THE CAREGIVING CHALLENGE THAT NO ONE TALKS ABOUT
There’s a huge upheaval that many caregivers experience but hardly never talk about. It’s when caregivers leave their own families in order to move in with aging parents. Or, they move parents into the family home. Often, these decisions to move are made quickly as the result of some crisis or
Continue readingScripturient: WTF is wrong with people these days?
Into everyone’s life comes the realization that we are not young and in between the time when we were, the world has changed. Not always for the better, either. In fact, it’s hard not to conclude the whole world has gone to shit since the internet arrived. Aging is not
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Genuflecting At The Digital Altar (Or, Is Nothing Sacred?)
They say that age is but a number, and there are many days I believe that. Often, I awake feeling relatively youthful, and the daily walks I undertake are conducted with vigor and strength of purpose. Other days, I feel rather keenly the aches and pains (still relatively minor at
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: MINDFUL PHOTOGRAPHY FOR THE CAREGIVER
In photography, mindfulness is like observing something for the first time, even though you may have looked at it a thousand times before. For example, when you’ve been away from home for a long period, and then, upon returning, you suddenly notice things to which you had become so accustomed
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: Helping A Loved One With Alzheimer’s Understand A Death In The Family
It is my pleasure to host this guest post today on the important topic of how to help our loved ones with Alzheimer’s cope with and understand a death in the family. Alzheimer’s disease affects millions of Americans, and even with all the studies that have been done surrounding its
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: It’s Time to Change The Way We View Exercise For Frail and Critically Ill
I’m posting this guest post from http://evidencenetwork.ca because my Mom has had so much difficult regaining her strength after 3 hospitalisations in the past 4 months. Next time my Mom is in a hospital bed, I’m going to ask for in-bed cycling! It’s time to change the way we view
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: It’s Time to Change The Way We View Exercise For Frail and Critically Ill
I’m posting this guest post from http://evidencenetwork.ca because my Mom has had so much difficult regaining her strength after 3 hospitalisations in the past 4 months. Next time my Mom is in a hospital bed, I’m going to ask for in-bed cycling! It’s time to change the way we view
Continue readingScripturient: On growing old
No man is so old that he does not think himself able to live another year. (Nemo enim est tam senex qui se annum non putet posse vivere) I was thinking of that line from Cicero this week when I attended a friend’s drop-in post-Christmas party. Most of the many
Continue readingScripturient: Wrinkles: a review
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. It’s the phrase that highlights the entrance to Hell in Dante’s Inferno. It could just as easily by carved above the entrances to many nursing and retirement homes. I recalled that phrase as we watched the 2011 animated film, Wrinkles, last night. Susan thought it the most depressing … Continue reading “Wrinkles: a review”
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: Defeating Frailty One Step at a Time
By Lisa Price, M.D.When we think of aging, we often think of slowing down, getting tired easily, doing less, and a lesser ability to bounce back from an illness or setback. Attributing these issues entirely to aging, however, means we are missing what …
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: Defeating Frailty One Step at a Time
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Yappa Ding Ding: Viva les Piratas Canadienses!
My friend Kate is currently in a 500 km boat race called the Ngalawa Cup in the Indian Ocean – sailing a dugout canoe with outriggers and a single sail. (Ngalawa is the Swahili word for outrigger, and this is a traditional Tanzanian fishing vessel, although in my memory they
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