The other day, I was listening to a banker talking about the volatility of financial markets. She used a term I hadn’t heard before – VUCA. It’s a military term used by forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and it stands for ‘Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous’. “Wow”, I thought, “that
Continue readingAuthor: Donna Thomson
THE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: Celebrate….with Cake!
It’s important to find ways to treat ourselves and those we love. It’s important to celebrate special occasions and to simply celebrate…. even if there is no special occasion. It’s important to celebrate life and love every day, if we can. So in the spirit of celebration, life and love,
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: The Sessions: Sex, Love, Disability and Dreaming
Sometimes I see a post in the newspaper or in another writer’s blog that is simply too good and too relevant not to share with my readers here. This is one of those posts: It’s by Harriet Cabelly and it’s titled “A Mind Like Schwarzenegger’s Body – Interview with Susan
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: Caregiving Chores – Love ‘Em, Hate ‘Em
Every caregiver will tell you there are some tasks that feel like nails on a blackboard. And to add insult to injury, these despised jobs are the ones that need doing several times a day, every day. Just thinking about having to do these chores is disheartening and dreadful –
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: Very Special Gifts
There are always one or two gifts at Christmas that become family heirlooms. They are the hand-made gifts – those crafted carefully and thoughtfully for someone who is particularly loved. They are the gifts that make one ponder, ‘who am I and what is the meaning of my life?’ This
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: A Christmas Story Reprinted Just Because
Merry Christmas Everyone! I wanted to share this wonderful story that a friend sent to me this Christmas night. It seems just right for anyone who cares for someone they love and seeks meaning in the experience. I wish all my readers health, resilience, a strong sense of hope and
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: How the Grinch Got Christmas
A few weeks ago, Nicholas came home to help decorate our Christmas tree. Nick is never that interested in the ‘girlie’ stuff of decorating, but he was only slightly grinch-like after I gave him a hot chocolate with mini-marshmallows to sip and put on Phil Spector’s “Rockin Around the Christmas
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: This Christmas, We are Thankful for Tyze
This Christmas, our family is grateful for Tyze Personal Networks. For those new to my blog, I am the mother of a young man with severe disabilities who is adored by everyone in our family. I’m also the daughter of an almost 91 year old who has never listened when folks
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: Enabled Giving at Christmas or Hannukah
The last few days, I have been thinking about the privilege of giving. This is a story that came to mind: I was just 22 years old when my husband Jim and I were posted to Moscow in 1978. It was the Brezhnev era and we were nervous about living
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: Unimaginable Tragedy
Today, I was going to post about my trip to Montreal in order to bring my Mum home from the hospital. But driving home today, listening to the radio, I heard the awful news. “Unimaginable” is the headline. Parents throughout the world are hugging their children a little longer and
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: C-Difficile – The Evil Bacteria That Makes Life Miserable
When my son Nicholas was about fourteen, he had a major hip surgery. Because of his severe cerebral palsy, the doctors decided it would be best to send Nicholas straight to the ICU rather than the recovery room after the surgery. Of course my husband Jim and I were waiting
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: The Twelve Days of a Caregiver’s Christmas
The Twelve Days of A Caregiver’s Christmas On the First Day of Christmas, I made my list of presents to buy for our family. On the Second Day of Christmas, I shopped on Black Friday for bargains. On the Third Day of Christmas, I shopped for more bargains because they
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: Five Tips for Surviving Caregiving
A few weeks ago, I travelled to Vancouver to address a family association and also to give a talk about how we use Tyze Personal Networks to coordinate Nick’s care. I’ve written extensively on Tyze before, but for the uninitiated, Tyze is a softw…
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: How To Live Without Irony: Just Ask a Caregiver
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A day or two ago, I was driving along the highway enroute to visit Nicholas, my young man who lives in a truly cozy and pleasant care home. Nick is 24 and has severe cerebral palsy as well as a myriad of other complicated medical …
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: Redefining Dementia – Let’s All Go to Denmark
Very recently, I came across a UK award-winning initiative for people with Alzheimer’s that I thought was, well, ‘barmy’. The social enterprise is called “Dementia Adventure” and aims to connect people living with dementia to nature and a sen…
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: You’ll Never Walk Alone
I am proud to call Canadian Supreme Court Justice Rosie Abella a friend. A few days ago, I was watching the television news when a story about a disability rights case in British Columbia caught my attention. The case dated back to …
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: Eight Questions That Can Heal
Dr. Arthur Kleinman is a psychiatrist and anthropologist who heads the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard University. In my last blog post, I talked about the heartbreaking story of Lia Lee in “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” …
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down – Learning from Tragedy
I had to dry my tears and compose myself before beginning this post. It was a book that had made me cry – “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Anne Fadiman.
This is a story about a Laotian family of refugees in California whose daug…
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: Future Fantasy: Technology and Communication
This morning I was driving through the rain as I listened to CBC radio. I was relaxed after a hard workout at the gym – always a great state for listening, in my experience. Nora Young hosts SPARK, a weekly interview radio show about technology and human connectedness. Nora is
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: The Right to Give Care to Someone You Love
Recently, I spoke on the telephone with another writer who six months ago, lost her beloved mother to cancer. Christabel Shaler writes a blog called The Ethical Hustler for the Vancouver Observer and here is how she described her mother in one of her posts there: We grew up
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