LET THE MOVE BEGIN . . .

Over the next 4 days, I will be heavily involved in moving my parents into their new assisted living apartment.  As the only remaining child (child?), this task is a bit daunting; fortunately, I have a cousin who is very close and helpful, plus a core group of family members ready to help.

FYI over the past months, each visit I have spent cleaning in the basement -- throwing some stuff away; giving much to the Goodwill or other charity.  Then, there's the stuff that contains family history or memories, or is just too valuable to be disposed of.  That stuff is being saved for someone somewhere.

Now, however, we move to the main part of the house; to the stuff they live with every day.  Much of that will go in the move, but there is quite a bit that will remain to be put into storage.

One thing I must say for my mother, she's a trooper.  She moved quite a bit in her life (the result of being an Air Force wife), but this move is the most difficult.  Her speech is peppered with small laments about not wanting to move.  Deep down, tho, she realizes that this is the time.  I am glad we are doing this while she can still have that realization (memory loss, bordering on dementia - an awful word, don't you think? - is taking its toll).  The unfortunate part is that the memory loss has taken enough to make her a bystander to the decisions being made.

For the next few days, if I blog - it probably will be more about this move than yoga.  I apologize, but this is my yoga right now (thanks, Sundari).

On another topic, I followed a link last night to notes transcribed from John Friend's talk to USC medical students, physicians, yoga instructors, anyone willing to listen.  So insightful and so 'spot on'.  As a patient from time to time (and as an employee in various healthcare settings), I've seen the lack of 'people skills' taught these bright minds - our physicians.  Many times they look at us as a formula to be solved, offer the solution, then run from the room without even a "how is your life" question.  (If my current Internal Medicine physician is reading this, you are NOT in this category; somewhere, you learned the lesson.)

The notes from his talk are available on Facebook, the transcriber is Natacha Sagalovsky Lovering, group:  Anusara West LA and Santa Monica.   I also copied them into my word processing program, so - if you are one of the few who does not 'do' Facebook, let me know and I'll send you a copy (include your e-mail address).

A bit cloudy here, but we can't let that stand in the way of moving progress . . .