I imagine that we have all, at some point in time, wished for a clear message about what next steps

On our second full day in Greece, our group of twenty ventured to the ruins of Eleusis. In preparation for

Less than a week ago, I was on a trip to Greece, actually a pilgrimage to Greece. I have returned

I’m headed to a pilgrimage to Greece today. But what does that even mean? Lots of people travel to Greece

When I purchased my lake house, it came with a sport boat and a Jet Ski. My family and I

I have always loved dance. Watching it, doing it. I’m still having a blast taking tap dancing classes. Short videos

We humans owe a great deal to seaweed. I’ve written that the earth’s great forests are the lungs of our

There are many ways to get from here to there, depending on variables such as distance, destination, desired speed, and

Last week’s freeze with scant snow and a layer of ice put me in a holding pattern. It was silent

There were twenty-seven of us when we started. It was fifty degrees at 7:00 AM one December Saturday morning when

It was a nice afternoon at the beach, if a bit cool. With temperatures hovering around 55 degrees, I decided

There’s a tree on a riverbank of a small stream that speaks to me. A trail runs alongside the stream,

Christmas items seem to show up on retail shelves before Halloween, not to mention how early the holiday songs start

Hanna rolled off her sleeping mat with a groan for her stiff back. She had only been back home for

Yes, Thanksgiving Day has passed, and I am supposed to have moved on to the Christmas season, but I like

“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” -Robert Burns   When I am home, I walk daily,

I’m at the lake today, alone. I drove down yesterday afternoon, pressure washed the dock and moved furniture in a

It’s mesmerizing watching ripples expand from a single drop of water. Slow motion photography can really capture the precision as

I received some unwanted, but necessary, news about the property at my lake house. Seems the sea wall is being

It’s the squirrel Olympics here at my house. I have three Japanese magnolias in my front yard that seem to

Oxygen in, carbon dioxide out. All day, everyday, our human bodies cycle these gases through our lungs. Our bodies die

Because the coast redwoods are so enormous, one would think that they reproduce using massive cones. However, their cones are

We were chatting amiably when we got out of the car at the small parking area of the trail we

Snakes strike fear in many people. It’s one of those pervasive fears, like the fear of spiders, that I somehow

It was 5:30 when I woke. As I lay in bed trying to decide if I wanted to stay tucked

We use the metaphor of fire in myriad ways. We speak of someone having a fire in their belly, a

Air—that invisible, yet essential element for life on earth. What is vital for animals, including us humans, is the oxygen

Water—an essential element of life, a simple molecule consisting of just two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen. We

It’s amazing, and a little disappointing, that I have managed to slip back into my regular life so easily after

I came across a number of bridges on my recent trek in the Alps, some ordinary, some extraordinary. There were

Dance With Me The mountain is whispering, “Come and dance.” Her voice speaks of crystal air, and Sheer walls of

I like to think that I live in the moment, being mindful and enjoying what I’m experiencing as it is

I wrote about fear last week, and how it can hold us back from realizing so many of life’s treasures—a

One of the most arresting features on the Galápagos Islands is the docile nature of the animals there. Most people

The Galápagos Islands’ most famous visitor was Charles Darwin. He boarded the HMS Beagle as a naturalist in 1831, at

The iconic animal of the Galápagos Islands is the Galápagos giant tortoise. In fact, Spanish explorers named these islands using

I’ve often described myself as somewhat reptilian because of the deep pleasure I get in sunning myself on a warm

Birds were on full display in the Galápagos Islands. It’s a destination for avid birders, but novices such as myself

The activity that my father and I enjoyed most while on our Galápagos Islands adventure was snorkeling. While skimming along

Our Galápagos adventure was aboard the National Geographic Endeavor ll, a small cruise ship that graciously accommodated the eighty-eight passengers

How do I start to write about my recent trip to the Galápagos? To quote Maria con Trapp, “Let’s start

I first learned about cairns from Harvey during the first year we were dating. He and two friends headed to

I was on vacation in Charleston, South Carolina last week, mostly wandering the streets and eating delicious food with my

Learning Southern medical colloquialisms was challenging, but kind of fun. It took me some time to finally understand the sentence,

The dedication in my memoir reads: “To Harvey: my rock, my touchstone, my heart.” I called Harvey “my rock” for

“The human heart is like a millstone in a mill: when you put wheat under it, it turns and grinds

As I continued to think about ways stones are used as metaphor, I came across many quotes that urge us

When I wrote last week about my love of rocks, I started thinking about all the ways we use stones

As remarkable and inspiring as the living, natural word is to me in all her abundance, rocks still enthrall me.

  “There are shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them.” – Vicki Baum I have a picture of

  My amazing daughters introduced me to the concept of “person first” language. When I asked them to read the

There are many joys of being a grandparent: watching your own child and their partner growing as parents, experiencing all

This quote in Elias Chacour’s memoir, Blood Brothers, stopped me in my tracks when I read it. While the particulars

I know solo hiking is not for everyone, and some people have expressed concern for my safety during these solo

  I just completed a solo hike a couple of weeks ago at Cheaha State Park on the Chinnabee Silent

  Music is such an important marker of Christmas and the holiday season.   The sights, smells and tastes of

Last week’s blog post was a meditation on the disquiet we sometimes feel during the holiday season. I tried to

Video Version Here On my visit to Israel/Palestine, my tour group visited many sites purported to be actual locations of

Video Version Here   On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, I gathered Harvey’s ashes, my shovels, and a hoe, stopped at

Video Version Here I haven’t written or spoken much about the title of my memoir, Surfing the Waves of Alzheimer’s.

On a lazy, quiet, September afternoon at the lake with my friend, Kate, I heard a chittering sound as a

Video Version Here   I’ve been thinking a lot about “home” lately. Probably because I’ve spent so much time traveling!

Video Version Here   Harvey passed away from complications of younger-onset Alzheimer’s disease, at the age of fifty-eight, on October

Video Version Here   Autumn is the time of year when monarch butterflies make their way south to winter-over in

In last week’s post, I spoke of dialing down my pace by a couple of notches when on vacation with

Video Version Here   Last week I traveled with my octogenarian parents (I promised I wouldn’t call them “elderly”) to

Video Version Here   Three years ago, I wrote and published my first blog post, “Here”  https://www.reneeharmon.com/2019/08/14/alzheimers-caregiving-is-asking-for-help-a-sign-of-weakness/ I have written

Video Version Here   I’ve written quite a bit about self-care when one is a caregiver to a person living

Video Version Here One day last week, while I was sitting on my front patio, I caught some slight movement

Video Version Here   I’ve often stated that the goal of giving good care to someone living with Alzheimer’s disease

Video Version Here On my northern Spain adventure this past June, I was surprised to see wild varieties of flowers

Video Version Here   There is one, solitary great blue heron that stalks the edges of the island that is

Video Version Here   When you communicate with someone, anyone, typically you use words and body language to convey your

Video Version Here Sreeeeeee-ah Sreeeeeeee-ah Sreeeee-ah That cry reached straight into my heart. I knew instinctively that it was a

Video Version Here   So. I just returned from probably the biggest adventure of my life—a hiking and writing trip

Video Version Here   Harvey and I married in 1985, the summer after our first year of medical school. We

Video Version Here   Even though I have spent my whole life in the South, it was only couple of

Video Version Here   In the middle stage of his Alzheimer’s disease, my husband, Harvey, would often rummage through our

Video Version Here One of the easiest and best practices that you can do for a loved one who is

Video Version Here       I’m guilty. I admit it. I’m not proud of the fact, but I want

Video Version Here Over millions of years, plants and animals have adapted and become specialized in myriad ways. It’s one

Video Version Here   I truly enjoy being in the woods by myself. One day last week, I hiked eight

Video Version Here I have a friend whose spouse lives with Alzheimer’s disease—of the mean variety. As in, my friend

Video Version Here “Lichen are fungi that have discovered agriculture.” —Trevor Goward If you’ve been reading my blog for any

Video Version Here Participants in my dementia support group who were caregivers for a parent often commented that they felt

Video Version Here Two summers ago, our family took a vacation to Oregon. We had planned a trip to Iceland,

Video Version Here   I came across an interesting tree while hiking in Oak Mountain State Park, in Shelby County,

Video Version Here When I was in elementary school, we were shown a film in science class that had a

Video Version Here   In the middle stage of his Alzheimer’s disease, my husband, Harvey, when home alone, would open

Video Version Here I’ve only had my lake house for six months, and already I’ve witnessed and encountered several wild

Last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, the somber first day of Lent. You might know that Lent is the Christian season

Video Version Here Last week at an ophthalmology appointment, the young female receptionist called me “Sweetheart.” Twice. I didn’t like

Video Version Here Rainbows have been seen as signs of hope ever since God placed one in the sky after

Video Version Here   Most of us seem to be more geared toward one of three time orientations—the past, the

Video Version Here I was on a hike recently with my niece, Jessica, a park ranger, when she asked me,

Video Version Here   I haven’t addressed this question specifically on my blog, and I only spent a paragraph on

Video Version Here Our youngest daughter got married last Saturday. It was a wonderful ceremony and reception, not to mention

Video Version Here One day when our children were very young, I found a colorful caterpillar munching on a fennel

Video Version Here Happy New Year! Happy 2022! I escaped to the beach for the week between Christmas and New

Video Version Here   On Christmas Eve Eve, my day started with calling the company that provides propane to heat

Video Version Here Laughing so hard you that you can’t stop can be painful. I get this way reading autocorrect

Video Version Here   As I shopped for new clothes to wear to holiday parties this season, I re-lived some

Video Version Here   I’m always caught off guard when someone asks me about my dating life since Harvey passed

Video Version Here   My absolute favorite time of year has always been spring. I love spotting wildflowers, hearing the

Video Version Here   I use the term “caregiver” quite frequently in my writing and speaking. It seems to be

Video Version Here My cousin Anna asked if I could find acorn caps for a craft project she’s planning. The

Video Version Here Taking on a second home on a lake has proven to be the challenge I feared it

I recently had a conversation at a party with a woman who had attended a seminar at which I gave

Video Version Here   As I walked onto my front porch first thing in the morning, I felt the cool

Video Version Here   I first heard someone say, about two and a half years ago, that we should be

Video Version Here   Our first big family vacation after Harvey’s diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease was a week-long rafting trip

Video Version Here   I’ve gotten caught in the rain on a few of my neighborhood walks. I do look

Video Version Here   Caregivers for loved ones living with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia are sometimes deemed “invisible patients.”

Video Version Here   There are things you know. There are things you don’t know. But there are also things

Video Version Here Last week I spoke at a conference titled “Inclusive Care: Empowering & Engaging Caregivers as Partners in

Video Version Here   I can’t think of anything that helps define us more than our names. You may identify

Video Version Here   “Momma would just die of embarrassment if she knew that we let her look like this!”

Video Version Here   After Harvey passed away, I wondered if I would ever dream about him. I’m not particularly

Video Version Here One of the highlights of my career in family medicine was the patients we had from Japan.

Video Version Here   Last week I discussed ways that language could be affected by Alzheimer’s disease. This week, let’s

Video Version Here A few weeks ago, I made a presentation about Alzheimer’s disease to a group of notaries public.

Video Version Here   Books, movies and television shows that use time travel as a literary device are perennial science

Video Version Here By now, you know that the FDA has approved the first new drug for the treatment of

Video Version Here   I’ve written about becoming aware that mindfulness was a gift that Harvey experienced in his time

Video Version Here I use an app called All Trails when I hike. It helps me find trails in the

Video Version Here Last week, I wrote about an experience I had walking a labyrinth. This memory came to me

Video Version Here   While on a recent hike, a memory emerged of an experience I had walking a labyrinth.

Video Version Here I knew that I was on a path of healing from my grief when I could remember

Video Version Here   “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” —Epictetus  

Video Version Here   My blog post two weeks ago was about feeling the need to explain my husband’s odd

Video Version Here I’ve seen some lovely scars on trees—scars formed after a trauma to the tree, such as a

Video Version Here   I was often embarrassed by my husband, Harvey. It’s hard to admit that, but it’s true.

Video Version Here “One day you will tell your story of how you overcame what you went through, and it

Video Version Here It’s easy to drag your feet when faced with receiving possible bad news. I’ve known patients who

Video Version Here I stumbled upon these words last week: “Expressive writing is scientifically proven to improve health, increase optimism,

Video Version Here “The Heart Never Forgets” is the title of a LeAnn Rimes song from 1998. I am not

Video Version Here I never really knew how to respond when someone said, “Renée, you are so strong.” “Thank you”?

Video Version Here This title may seem harsh to some of you, but to those of you who are experiencing

Video Version Here   “Let’s do it together” was a caregiving mantra I often used to remind myself that Harvey

Video Version Here   You are probably aware of Dr. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression,

Video Version Here The title of this blog and its parent chapter in my book was something I heard from

Video Version Here   Placing a loved one in a care facility may be the hardest decision a caregiver has

Video Version Here If I had to state whether I prefer to live in the past, the present, or the

Video Version Here   The eleventh chapter of Surfing the Waves of Alzheimer’s carries the title “Enter Their World.” In

Video Version Here While there are some medications used to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, their effects are limited.

Video Version Here   There were few topics that came up more frequently than the driving issue in my support

Video Version Here Ah, holiday nostalgia! In my family of origin, in the 1960’s, the finishing touch to decorating the

VIDEO VERSION HERE As if navigating the holidays with a loved one living with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia isn’t

Video Version Here Some people just have the knack of finding the perfect gifts for others. Some do not. My

Video Version Here So I’m thinking how appropriate this particular caregiving principle is as we move into the holiday season.

VIDEO VERSION HERE I originally titled this seventh chapter of my teaching memoir “It’s OK to Ask for Help.” After

VIDEO VERSION HERE   As Thanksgiving Day approaches, what better way to give thanks than to celebrate members of your

This was probably the most often cited caregiving principle in my support group. We came back to it time and

The fourth chapter of my teaching memoir is titled “He’s Not Giving You a Hard Time; He’s Having a Hard

The third chapter of my teaching memoir, Surfing the Waves of Alzheimer’s: Principles of Caregiving That Kept Me Upright, is

The second chapter of my teaching memoir carries this title “If You’ve Met One Person With Alzheimer’s, You’ve Met One

What I’d like to do in this next series of blog posts is dip my toes into each of the

Well, I spent five weeks detailing comments that make caregivers of persons living with Alzheimer’s disease inwardly cringe when they

I am a member of a private Facebook group for female spouses of persons living with Alzheimer’s disease and other

I can’t believe I’m getting at least four installments out of this series. I’m actually glad that I broke them

Here we go, another round of terrible things to say to a caregiver of someone living with dementia. I want

This might turn into a longer series of articles than I had anticipated. Beyond the list I had complied for

Several years ago, decades actually, Harvey and I led a Sunday school class on grief and dying. One week we

“Hello! Mrs. Harris, I am calling to tell you how you can help a young child who may now be

About  six years into his diagnosis of younger onset Alzheimer’s disease, Harvey developed a friendship with the man in the

One of the many concerns caregivers have about their loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease, or other dementias, is wandering. Will

“But losing everything is like the sun going down on me.” –Elton John and Bernie Taupin Elton John didn’t record

I’ve been thinking about our medical care system lately and how difficult it is to navigate when your loved one

I’m going to put it all together now that I’ve discussed the stages of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as language

Let’s finish up this list of communication tips. Maybe I can get through them with more honesty and without beating

  Well, here we are again with our list of communication tips. I revised it to make it less like

  If you’ve been in the Alzheimer’s world for any length of time, you’ve probably seen this list before. I

The loss of language ability is one of the profoundest losses experienced in Alzheimer’s disease–both for a person living with

Caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia know their loved one has a disease through no fault of

It’s well known that Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive disease that worsens over time, hence the staging named in my

The most detailed roadmap of Alzheimer’s disease was actually given to me by a friend who printed off an article

I wrote last week that I dearly desired a map or guidebook that would help me navigate the world of

I have always loved maps and globes. I have early memories of poring over the maps in my father’s National

What are some other responses people have upon hearing someone they know has Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia? Actually, if

If you are a caregiver, what was your first reaction on hearing your loved one had Alzheimer’s disease?   Shock

Just as a person diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease follows his or her own unique course of the disease–if you’ve seen

I want to follow up last week’s blog post with a discussion about some more of the unique challenges that

Whenever someone finds out that Harvey had Alzheimer’s disease, invariably, the response is, “But he’s so young!” Yes, I know.

This is an unprecedented time. We have never experienced this type of fear, anxiety, and isolation before. If you are

As I write this, I am currently “sheltering in place” as our city, and most of the world, is experiencing

I first found the phrase “If you’ve seen one case of Alzheimer’s, you’ve seen one case of Alzheimer’s” early on

There is a world of difference between the questions “What did you do today?” and “How was your day?” Ask

Just as you should take care of your physical and emotional well-being, so too should you care for your spiritual

So far, I’ve written three full blog posts about how I took care of myself while being a care partner

Taking care of yourself emotionally entails more than having an outlet to express your emotions. As a care partner, you

Just as taking care of your physical body is important as a care partner, so too is taking care of

Interestingly, my copy of Family Practice Management came across my email last week with the lead story entitled “Five Ways

I’d like to follow up with a little more discussion about exercise. So easy for me to recommend, and so

There are no cures for Alzheimer’s disease at this time, and just a handful of possibly promising medications on the

So, I’m hoping by now you’ve seen where I’ve been going with these series of posts. I started by exploring

So far we’ve talked about folks who can help you care for your loved one with dementia. You’ll likely need

I first heard about Respite Care, a type of dementia community group, from our great friend, Nancy. Her sister had

So, I’ve established that holidays can be hard. Now what? Should you hide away? Should you put on your merriest

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Season’s Greetings! Be of good cheer! Um, wait a minute. I’m just not feeling it this

If you have a loved one with Alzheimer’s or another dementia, you know that your holidays will not be the