Today, we seek to redefine the nature of meditation. Meditation is often seen as passive, a settling in and calming of spirit, soul, body and mind. To be sure this is a worthwhile undertaking. It allows for a serenity to be imposed on our otherwise too busy and too hectic lives.

However, there can be another dimension to meditation that is active. It is prompted by the need to make meditation a verb, to involve yourself with others and their lives. One that occurs to me is visiting in a care facility, where family members or friends or persons you may not even know would enjoy a drop in visit for a while.

I have been in two such facilities over the past week. What I discover is how persons, whether the one to be visited or others

The Crabby Old Man

What do you see nurses? . . .. .. . what do you see?

What are you thinking . . . . . when you’re looking at me?

A crabby old man . . .. . . not very wise,

Uncertain of habit . . . . . with faraway eyes?

Who dribbles his food . . . . . and makes no reply.

One of the difficult pieces of dad’s dementia has been listening to his ‘onceinawhile’ verbal attacks.  They haven’t been frequent, nor have they been  vicious, both of which my hospice sister says could change.  One day, recently,  I went with my father to the gas station to fill his car.  He willingly and almost automatically [...]

Reality walked out the back door with Dad and his wife, our second mom, when any discussion about a move to their ’home state’ was on their plate.  It seemed for this 94 year old demented  father of ours and his 82 year old wife, that they would be able to handle the severe cold weather, the [...]

Senior citizens carry the fastest-growing credit card debt in the United States today.  The average balance increased 149% from 1995 to 2004 among retirees 65 and older.   That figure continues on the rise.  If you find your credit card debt worrisome, this article is for you. You can choose to go to a debt relief [...]

How many family and friends are left in your circle? Are you old enough that you can discard them easily? Do you work at trying to maintain and sustain the friendships you have cultivated during your life? No matter where you are on life’s longevity scale, keeping your friends, some of whom are related, is a very important undertaking. They have given you more than likely you realize. They mean more than you have calculated. They are the treasures of life whose intrinsic value is predicated on how they share their love, how they are there for and with you at critical times.

My mother is now 90. She is my friend, one of my lifetime treasured friends, whom I know will always be there for me. There is no way to replace such a friend. There are others, but this is the ultimate

I didn’t like basketball for a whole lot of years. If you had gone from one end of the court to the other, with everyone screaming, and finally realized it was because you hadn’t dribbled the ball at all, you might have felt a twinge of embarrassment too. But now, all these millenia later when that memory has been shared too many times and you know more about basketball than you did then, and you can watch in the comfort of a den on a 50″ screen, things change. The Suns whomped the Spurs and the next set promises to be equally stimulating. It is fun, at a later age, to come to the permission to enjoy such entertainment, skill and wonderful excitement.

Never a sportsman of any kind in any arena, it is interesting that I can give up my poor performance for the sheer joy of cheering on the team of my choice. Never one who ever was able to play, to excel at any sport, I can now

The best way to travel in Europe? Explore your favorite European destinations by rail with ‘Eurorail’ Passes. Popular for over 50 years, you may take as many trains as you wish with your Eurail Pass. How cool is that! Eurail Passes, also known as Euro Rail Passes, are train Passes for flexible rail travel throughout [...]

A safe formula retirees are recommended to live with is to spend less as you advance in age. That’s a worthy idea, but one that seems difficult to fit into today’s economy. We are doing our best by reducing expenses to the bare minimum. We do not impulse buy nor do we splurge in our spending. Monthly necessary expenses are kept to the minimum, but there are still those items that resist reduction and adjustment. Many seniors are in this situation, and today we have the following suggestions to offer:

* Keep a careful accounting of monthly outgo. Attempt to winnow it down where you can; the winnowing always seems to cry out for more expense and less reduction of costs. Take a look at clothing, groceries utilities; for most of us, medical costs are not negotiable; prescriptions and over-the-counter products are generally necessary. Look at any

When I turned 60, my husband had just retired.  He’d taught French and Spanish for 150 years and he was ready to do volunteer work and garden.  I was ready for a different adventure, but hadn’t quite figured out what that adventure was going to look like.  So when my youngest daughter asked me one [...]