A Place of Peace

An Alzheimer’s Poem – about Mom and me,
found scratched on the back of a website workshop handout
from some time in 2013. I found it as I was throwing out old papers recently.
This one got saved to share with you here….

We seem to be
wrapped in continuity
accustomed to our journey’s steps
quickened in the now
unafraid of the next

How did we get here
from where we began
In agonies and angst, fighting while we ran
from all the dreaded futures we fear
the ones where Alzheimer’s appears
to rob us of our joy
turning our lives into its careless toy

But look
the river has broadened,
run wide and full
We no longer spill and tumble in its falls
catch our breath with every call

We know the way
the currents deep –
Our own wise counsel we will keep
amidst the broad-banked final days
as gently we move with the current phase
toward that new and opening space,
the ocean’s source of endless grace

Now there is time to give a look back
Celebrate a life
Share a laugh
Realizing that in the darkened mind
the Spirit of Life shines clear
And we here are its witnesses