I’m a slow and resistant student in the classroom of life. And perhaps the truth I face most reluctantly is how unwelcome and painful challenges teach lessons that I probably wouldn’t learn any other way. If you’re like me, at your lowest moments you’ve felt the intense desire to slap anyone who waltzes in, puts…
There’s a hopeful phrase we started hearing a lot from long-term care leaders, residents and staff when the vaccines first arrived—“a light at the end of the tunnel.” Invariably some wise-guy or gal would pipe up with, “Yeah, let’s hope it’s not a train.” Fast-forward to one of my first road trips in a post-lockdown…
Weddings are always rich in symbolism, but one I attended on a sunny afternoon recently carried far more than usual.
One thing the pandemic has done is put everything in perspective. When 97.2% of long-term care news over the past 18 months has been about the horrors of COVID-19, it’s a breath of fresh air to instead see a headline about the horrors of obstructive sleep apnea. It’s not good news, of course, just less…
One of many puzzling memories from my childhood is witnessing my father’s failed attempt late one dark Canadian night to convince an unwilling horse to walk up a rickety ramp into the back of our pickup truck. Tugging from the front didn’t work. Prodding from the back was equally ineffective. Multiple people pulling and pushing…
So apparently, Benjamin Franklin had gout. I mention this because apparently I do, too. Of all the things we could have had in common, this wouldn’t have been my top choice.
I don’t want to put a hex on the situation with a premature celebration, but the downward trajectory of the pandemic makes it appear that long-term care people can finally perhaps maybe start discretely considering the conceivable possibility of potentially mulling over the notion of feasibly working someday in a facility without wearing a mask. …
Now that the pandemic is easing, one of my best ideas is probably never going to get the chance it deserves. It involves using the power of natural law to make sure an unvaccinated long-term care resident can’t come to harm from being in close proximity with an unvaccinated guest. When that vaccine-hesitant visitor arrives…
Aren’t you glad that when the survey team shows up at your long-term care facility, they don’t horizontally immobilize you, place an assortment of sharp tools in your mouth to prevent you from defending yourself and talk directly into your ear about everything you’re doing wrong?
Self-compassion isn’t something I do very well. That’s probably because I was born in Canada, and when the doctor slapped my wrinkled baby butt, I said, “Sorry!” instead of crying. While American children started the school day reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, we stood with our hands over our hearts and chanted, “For the rest…
