Lessons I learned from nature

I am a member of the Colorado Culture Change Coalition Board of Directors.
https://www.coculturechange.org/

This past Friday, we met for the first time in over 2 years in person. Part of our meeting was a guided therapeutic lessons learned from nature walk. The board member leading us talked about a tree that had limbs resembling elders with sore, stiff, arthritic joints. I took a picture of the tree and will share a brief lesson an elder taught me twenty-five plus years ago.

 Minnie was in her late 90’s. She had rheumatoid arthritis with gnarly, twisted hands that looked just like these tree limbs. I was passing medications and frequently promised she would get her pain medication promptly @ 10pm. At 10:10pm, I dashed in the room with her medications & briefly apologized thinking I was close enough. Minnie had none of it.

She was angry and crying. In my opinion, she was overreacting. Minnie finally took the medication. When she was able to talk, I asked her what I should have done. She pointed her tiny, crooked finger (as crooked as the tree limbs in this picture) at me and said, “don’t make promises you can’t keep.” Whenever she asked me in the future about arrival times, I promised to try to be there at the scheduled time. She smiled and always said she could trust me now. It did not matter if I was early or late, she was understanding and gracious. Looking at these tree limbs reminds me of Minnie. I still remember holding her fragile crooked hand, thinking about lessons learned from nature as
well as Minnie’s lesson on trust.

I am looking forward to next week’s Dementia Action Alliance conference. (See September 4
blog) I will be sharing insights from care partners and elders living with dementia.