My Christmas Present

Today my favorite Christmas present has been having both parents in places where they are safe, warm and being taken care of better than I could do. If you have been on Facebook over the past couple of weeks, you may have seen a status report on the craziness that hit my family in the last little bit. The craziness has subsided and now my Mom has a new home at Homewood Assisted Living and my Dad is in a rehabilitation center for monitoring and physical therapy for his heart attack. He should be leaving in a few days and is doing great given a triple bypass. For the past two days I have not had to dash around town to 10 different places to take care of things. The calmer days of just being able to visit have been a welcome change.

Core Values

Yesterday when I was visiting my Mom in the nursing home, the employees asked me a few questions about Mom's background. They wanted to know what she had done for a living. They figured it had to be something dealing with kids or being outside since she seems to respond best to both of those stimuli now days. I filled them in on the fact that she was a bookkeeper/receptionist for a union for 35 years. She did always like to garden and she had to put up with three kids.

It is funny how when you strip away all of society's pretenses you are left with the core principles and values that make you you. It makes me wonder what things I would pick to carry through to the end of my days.