What Are You Glad About?

DK,

I quite agree again. Except for the greatest nation on earth part.

Our children should be fed, our veterans attended and sick taken care of. No one should dwell on the street.

Good post, DK. I agree with most of what you say and agree with Alice about the greatest nation on earth statement. It once was and can be again, but at the moment, it is lacking. "By their fruits ye shall know them."

mburbaugh jr wrote:

alj wrote:

Goodness, Mr. Burbaugh, why don't you just come out and tell us what you think.

Welcome to the motley crew, BTW

Ann

Heavens no, people would think they were reading a horror book if I did that.

Your sense of humour will go down well here, Merle! You are a breath of fresh air.

I'm unbelievably glad today, everyone! I have been struggling for the past week. I'd set myself a goal of writing 1,000 words a day so that I could finish my present work in progress before Christmas. I've maintained that. However, after chapter nine, I didn't know the direction I was going in. Everythig had been building nicely and I got to the point I wanted to be at ... but then, where to go next? My mind had stopped giving me the next chapter readily so that I could get on with it. Too much research and not enough thinking time! Well, the research is finally behind me and my mind is free again, at last!

I woke this morning knowing the last chapter and how to get to it without going down any dead ends. What a relief! The final chapters are now mapped out. I will probably make several changes as I go along, but at least the way is clear!

Hope your day feels as good as mine!

All creations go through a necessary period of entropy, according to Clarissa Pinkola Estes.

I am glad because the wind is howling around my house this morning - our first cold front has arrived. here it is, nearly nine am, and only 65 degrees. Our forecast is that we will likely reach 76 by late afternoon, but that tonight, we will drop to 48 degrees - and the pattern will be around for a couple of days!

Maybe that doesn't sound so cold to many of you, but remember, a month ago we were hitting 105 almost daily.

Ann

Happy for you Shelagh. It appears that there is light at the end of the long tunnel.

Glad everyone is glad--it all makes me happy as well.

Hello everyone! Been missing for a while....I am glad for a lot of things!

I am glad to be alive and well with no medical problems at 46!

I am extra glad and grateful that my 70-year old mother is recouperating from a stroke! Getting stronger every day! She actually craved fish and grits which we gladly cooked for her on last Sunday!!!

I am glad to be amongst other writers!

I am so glad that I got out of my own way and allowed the God of my understanding to send me my soulmate!

I am super glad that I am a Published Author!

I am simply glad and could go on and on........

Lee,

Thank you--I am happy for you! Welcome back. When did your mother have a stroke?

Hey Alice....Mom has had a series of mini strokes but this one happened around the 11th of the month....slow moving, got her speech and appetite back. Pace maker being put in on Nov. 10th. But the God of my understanding is good. And all is well.

Thanks! Lee

Hope all goes well for your mom, Lee.

Just when life seems to flow, something difficult comes along. A parent's ill health is such a difficult time. I hope your mom has a full recovery and that the cause is fixed.

Lee,

Hope she continues to improve. My mother- in- law gets better every year.
She is now 91.

She got over mini- strokes and heart trouble.

Thanks Abe! I really appreciate the support!

Alice and DKChristi,

Thanks for the support and encouragement....

10/29/2011


Lee..

I just read this and I hope your Mom gets better, I
have a friend who had two strokes in one year and now is
recovering. This is for you and your Mom, to cheer her up.

Cheers...Joe

Lee, I wish you and your mother well at this time.
I hope she continues to recover.

Lee -my mom had a stroke a few months ago, two days after returning from the hospital from a heart attack. She's recovered beautifully from both physically, it's her mental state that remains the same, and which led to both. She sits around all day worrying that my dad will die first and she'll be all alone, and that they're both going to die soon (they're in their late 70's). Some people handle aging well, she's not one of them. I'm glad that I've finally developed an indifference, for lack of a better word, to her craziness, because trying to reason with her was making me crazy, too.

We folk in our 70's are deemed a bit crazy, by some. Getting pushed aside or considered non-functioning humans, we can get testy. We don't want to be sick and cared-for, however shit happens and we're still breathing. We still have feelings and can feel hurt. We can get relief from physical hurt, however mental hurt is not easy to deal with. Where the young see light at the end of the tunnel, we see darkness.
As long as we're still breathing, we deserve to act crazy and say what we think and feel. We don't want to be politically correct, just true to ourselves.

People can act however they want. I'm just saying that when you indulge in depression and difficult behavior, others, including family, aren't going to want to be around you too much.

My dad makes things difficult, too. I don't even have a key to their house, access to their accounts or safe deposit box or anything (he asks, "why do you need it, are you planning a surprise visit? ). He used to complain that his parents were like this, but he's even worse than they are. At least he had a key to their condo.

I remember all the things I would not do when I became older. I was wrong. Each decade sees through different eyes, has different hopes and dreams and lives through different fears.

The fear of dying is real when parents pass and friends one's own age are dying all around or becoming ill with terminal illnesses that negatively impact their lives and finances. The fear of being alone is very real since most women spend their senior years alone and impoverished.

Depression is fear and anger turned inside out. It is a response to the lack of power over choices. The cure for depression is medical, nutritional and physical.

I use exercise like medicine. I hate going to my Silver Sneakers class four days a week; but I cannot afford to not receive the endorphins or the hopefulness from the 40 plus smiling faces of people age 60 to 90 in the same class looking like a bunch of unattractive fools jumping up and down and pumping iron. We laugh. We get to know each other. We learn from each other. For many of us it puts people in an otherwise non people day.

My church has prayer chaplains, trained people who just listen and pray together. They have our little church divided up and the chaplains call every single church member at least once per month. I got my call, "Hi, Diane. This is Phil, the prayer chaplain at Unity. I'm just calling to see if you would like to chat a bit, share silence together, or perhaps have a moment of meditation or prayer." In my younger years, I would have hung up. In the silence of that day, three days I had been working on a book and seeing no living human being, his voice was welcome and I thanked him. I was grateful for the call.

Seventy is young today. In my car pool are two women in their 70's and a man in his 80's. I'm the "youngster." Some days I feel older!!! This exercise class four days a week is a real endorphin builder. And it's designed for the guy in the wheelchair to the Demi Moore double in her cutsy aerobics gear with the matching headband.

Sometimes a Wellbutrin or other anti-depressant carefully watched by a doctor will take the edge off depression; though that's a last resort. Next is nutrition. There are definite foods that elevate mood. Sugar is a depressant. The less sugar and caffeine the better.

People with a purpose in life are better able to fight depression. Someplace to go provides a purpose.

My mother is 92. Her purpose is paying as little as possible through sales and coupons for her daily expenses. Her exercise is multiple trips up and down the basement stairs. She likes to eat out. She also takes a small amount of antidepressant. She gets distressed at things that I find not worth the anxiety - yet, to her they are a problem.

All this is to say 1) we do not see life through our parents' eyes 2) exercise is a great depression cure and 3) so is an activity that brings you in contact with other people.

My parents have always eaten healthy and exercised. They still do. But as Abraham Lincoln said, "most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." Both my parents have made up their minds to be depressed.

I'm going to give you one last argument, LC. I have known depression all my life. I have been surrounded by people with depressive issues and counseled many as a women's counselor. I am far from an expert, but depression is painful. It is not a choice. It is either situational or chemical and can be improved. Some people cannot get up each morning as Lincoln said and "choose to be happy." I am not one of them. I get up each morning and know that depression is hanging over me like a cloud just waiting to drop rain; I have to find a reason to fight it each day. There have been times in my life when I couldn't fight it alone and sought therapy. I wish I could just take a pill, but I am one of those people for whom medications have the wrong effects. Your parents have twenty or thirty good years ahead of them. If you have brothers and sisters or relatives perhaps you could work together to encourage your parents to see a therapist, a physician or other person to jump start them on finding more sunshine in their lives.

There is an aspect of depression that I see as "catching" just as a positive outlook is catching. Beware. Those very things about our parents that we say are not going to be our inheritance come back to haunt us in our senior years. Helping your parents to find more joy in life will benefit you also.

A couple fortunate to have each other, sometimes become so like one person that they cannot help change their own outlook. Sometimes a church or social activity to bring them in contact with other people is a good thing. A friend of mine takes the Casino bus on Thursdays to go to the Casino just because the people on the bus are older like her and enjoying each other's company. I don't know what's in your community, but hopefuly there are activities, even one, that might spark the interest of your parents: a garden club, a volunteer activity, a majong game, a senior citizens center - just one thing might do it. Good luck.

Good post, DK.

DK, it's not like I haven't tried all that. I HAVE asked both my parents to get therapy for years and years and years. My mom already sees doctors for her many ailments. She was on antidepressants for a short while but stopped because she said they made her worse. I suggested she tell the doc that and try another, but she didn't.

Another saying: you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

Wish I could offer some good input on the subject of depression, however what I would or could say, would not be as constructive as coming from someone who has experienced it and overcame it. Even then, I don't believe there is a blanket cure/solution.