Dear Emily:

December is such a busy month. Everywhere you look people are in a hurry and if you talk to them they’ll tell you about how much they have to do. It’s certainly a time of year where people have a lot on their “to do” list. It’s a time of the year where it’s even more important for people to take time to connect with their spirit and the stillness inside. I know things go out of whack for me if I go too long without centering in my spirit.

That’s one of the reasons I was doing a little jig around the bathroom floor after I stepped out of the shower this morning. It’s Friday! And even if I have nothing special planned it is special in the sense that on weekends I take more time to connect with self and spirit in ways that are important to me. The other reason is that I got my mark on the DSM course I just finished and it was an A+. Yoohoo!

Yesterday, I stopped for my regular Thursday night visit with Mom. It’s funny how one minute she is in a fairly good mood and the next minute she’s got that angry frustrated look and she’ll say something that cuts right through you. I don’t take it so personally now but I realize how it’s the kind of stuff that was so upsetting to deal with when she was under our care for 24 hours a day. It’s the kind of stuff that after a long and draining day of giving all we had made us feel like, to use an old cliché, like the straw that broke the camel’s back.

It’s easy now to be with her and to deal with where she happens to be but it’s not like when we had to be there 24/7 and look after her every minute of the day. Thursday’s is the night I stop in and give her a bath. She loves the attention and the pampering I give her. I have her soak in a nice warm bath, wash her from head to toe, towel her dry, lotion her body, put cold cream in her face, brush her hair, do her nails, dress her in her clean nightgown and then wrap her in a warmed up sheet before I wheel her off to have a snack.

We have our little routine now where once she’s had her snack I brush her teeth, put her to bed, put some pillows under her feet to keep them elevated. Then I go around the bed and make sure she’s in a comfortable position and tuck her in. I lean over the bed rail give her a kiss and tell her “I’m going to leave now. Goodnight, sleep tight.” And she responds, like I used to say. “Don’t let the bed bugs bite. And if they do take your shoe and hit them until they’re black and blue.” Only the roles are reversed now.

Writefully Yours
Annette