We are entering the Thanksgiving season and I have a lot to be thankful for.  The last month Bob has really been alert, engaged and happy.  He is speaking in full sentences, something he has not done for a year.  Some of them make sense, and some don't, but I am thankful for anything I can get!  Recently he mentioned the words "General Conference".  I tried to pry further, but that was all he cared to comment at that moment.  What blew me away was that is was during the time the annual council were taking place and the discussions were quite significant to the cause of women's ordination that Bob has always been passionately in favor of.  He was always quite involved in annual council when he worked at the General Conference headquarters in Maryland.  There is no way he could have been aware of that timing.  Or was there.......
I am so thankful for the assurance that hospice is there.  I am so thankful for the caregivers at The Piper.  They do not have an easy job, and I know I could not do that type of nursing.  I would much rather do acute care where patience is not continually called for.  Last week The Piper had a couples lunch, complete with dim lights, soft music and gourmet food.  Bob can feed himself again (he was not feeding himself this summer) and the lunch with only 4 couples was delightful.  I have a whole new circle of friends as a result of Bob's illness, and they are a blessing to me, and I hope I am a blessing to them.  I am so thankful that God is caring for Bob through the hands and hearts of others, and I am at peace.

"There is much pain to endure when watching a loved one with dementia.
There is the pain of perpetual grief.  There is the raw wound of continual loss.
There is the struggle to preserve their dignity, and the desire
to respect the present and cling to the past.
However
in the midst of the heartache there is a small glimmer of light
that exists to remind us of the things that dementia can't take away--
the warmth of a touch, the importance of smiles and laughter
and the knowledge of what it truly means to experience unconditional love and acceptance."
---author unknown

"How do you spell love?"--Piglet
"You don't spell love, you are in love."--Pooh

I am so sad as I watch and hear about the devastation and chaos in California.  I cannot get the
people there off my mind, and I cannot imagine what their Thanksgiving will be like.  I am sure it will come down to the fact that they are thankful they are alive, and are grateful for the dedication of the firefighters and relief workers. What the world needs now is love and compassion for those whom we share this planet with. I hope I can share that love in my little corner of the world.  I hope I can brighten someone's life with just a smile, or a simple touch on the arm.  I hope I can offer a shoulder to cry on, if that is what they need.  Bob's favorite saying used to be "I love you, a bushel and a peck, and a hug around the neck."  And he gave a lot of them!

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."---Melody Beattie

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Betty