Life certainly has gotten easier with technology.  In the last month, I have used my phone to book air travel from Traverse City, arrange for a hotel stay, make reservations for dinner and request a ride from a stranger while in Austin.  I managed all of this (and...

It seems each year when the first snow hits the ground, we are a little surprised.  Some of us may be horrified at the sight of snow covering the leaves that just blanketed the lawn only days before.  I must admit, of all the seasonal transitions fall into winter may...

 “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”  The fox to the Little Prince, Little Prince Book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943  This quote may be familiar to you as you may have read this book to a child or...

Recently, at a morning huddle in our office, I became aware of the fact that 20% of people have lost a significant relationship due to politics.  That’s a lot of relationships.  I am not a smart man but over the years I have learned, through experience, that...

How I spent my most recent birthday. This was an ideal day for me.  Ideal because I was able to include so many of the things I truly enjoy with some of the people I love the most. I woke up on glorious Mackinac Island (this is no surprise because I went to bed there...

You may already know that I have an eclectic taste in music, as I have mentioned being a fan of Nat King Cole, Aaron Copland, and Beethoven.  I bet you had no idea that I was a Joni Mitchell fan.  I didn’t grow up as a fan, I never owned one of her albums, and I never...

I’m exhausted.  Are you?  We seem to wait forever for summer weather so we can really enjoy what it means to live here in Northern Michigan (this year, we seemed to wait a bit too long).  Once summer is upon us, we tend to pack everything into our days that we dreamed...

What would you do with an extra hour?  I know that’s a silly question, because there is no such thing as an extra hour (except for that glorious extra hour when we turn our clocks back in the fall).  What I am asking is; if you had a portion of your day that was...

In no way do I consider myself an expert or even qualified to be an authority on dementia, but I am offering these suggestions from the experience that I have attained and the books that I have read.  I am not hung up on the technical diagnosis, and I would suggest...

My first experience with dementia was with my Romanian grandfather 30 years ago.  I was especially close to him because we shared the same birth date (different years).  He was 84, living in a nursing home.  Joan and I would sneak garlic bologna to him because his...