15 Jan Dementia Together Care Partner Conversations: Love, Hope, and a Better Way
“Positive people aren’t ignoring the darkness of this world. They have dragged themselves painfully into the light and are choosing to share it with you.” Donna Ashworth.
The greatest privilege of coming alongside those walking the dementia journey is bearing witness to the care partners who know the very real struggles of loving well. Our Dementia Together care partners continue to show us what commitment looks like. They often realize they, themselves, have done more changing than those in their care. They realize LOVE IS often the answer. They aren’t denying the difficulties of caregiving. They are operating with realism wrapped in hope. These “hopefulists” see the world for what it is, while choosing to courageously challenge the status quo with us.
Themes of conversations over the past year with our Dementia Together warrior nurturers have centered around:
Acknowledging ambiguous grief while discovering joy can co-exist.
Admitting the sense of loneliness and isolation when others back away while experiencing great relief in meeting friends in the Dementia Together community who show up.
Increasing capacity for uncertainty while honing practical skills to promote predictable contentment, security, confidence, and trust for loved ones in their care.
Learning to love repetition of what works while simplifying routines along the way so that cognitive decline does not equate to decline in well-being.
Building endurance in choosing to do hard things while practicing grace in all directions—especially toward themselves.
Providing selfless, tender, imperfect care for their loved ones while being willing (sometimes reluctantly) to accept help and care for themselves so that the journey becomes sustainable.
Choosing to show love for the long haul, while embracing a “for now” mindset to curiously discover what strategies work (and what strategies don’t!), finding it all…“interesting.” 😊
The positivity that Dementia Together shares is not ignoring negativity or realism. It is accepting both and choosing defiant hope anyway.
When we hear a tragic story, we know, it doesn’t have to be that way. Hope rejects the tragedy narrative that society too often accepts. HOPE and LOVE always lead to a better way.
–Cyndy Hunt Luzinski, MS, RN, SPECAL Practitioner
Founder and Executive Director, Dementia Together
