I am about to be 96. In our senior living environment, there are about 150 others within striking distance! Where we live is a replacement of our home with various services and facilities. And note that this is not a facility where care is on-site. If help at any level is needed, 9/11 is called.
We have adapted well and are relatively happy here. We have met fine people, many from the East Coast, and overall, their education level is high, so dialogue is almost always interesting.
The point I intend to make is that we, and what we witness all around us, like feeling well, enjoying conversation, or a meal, is, at best, a now thing. Tomorrow may bring fatigue, pain, a hospital trip, or we are no more. The path we walk is not endless; an end is our future, and it is not a long one.
Here, I believe, are the musts for those of us I write about:
Be present, and have dialogue with people. Listen to them and make sure they hear you, and you hear them. Let your past go unless family and old friends bring it into the conversation. If experiences were good, reminisce; if not, let them go. Now is what is. Be with it and go with it. Be grateful for the good things in your life and let go—at last—of the ugly things. We all have both, and none of us is alone. It has been thus forever.
Sy
Author: Sy Ogulnick
Sy Ogulnick received a BA from UCLA, Teacher’s Credential from Los Angeles Board of Education and completed phase I (Master’s portion) in a Doctor of Behavioral Science program at California Coast University. Sy leased and operated a summer day camp in LA. He and his wife then purchased virgin wilderness land in Northern CA, where they built and operated a coed summer camp. They moved to Las Vegas, NV, and purchased, built and operated a community children’s program for families staying in a major resort casino in Las Vegas. They have created programs for children nationwide that employed many people and in the process developed successful training programs for personnel. This led Sy to lecture on how to train staff and the creating of community within the workplace. Sy was then invited to speak at professional conferences on how best to hire and train employees, which led to his becoming a consultant in the art of improving relationships in a work environment and eventually to his epiphany that “Leaders are the primary problem and the answer to the personnel issues that arise in the workplace.” Sy has written numerous papers on the subject of interpersonal relationships, leadership and power. He has lectured throughout the United States, has been interviewed by the media and has appeared on many radio and TV talk shows
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