Celebrations & Other Fluff
"Life should not only be lived. It should also be celebrated."
Dear Elloise,
We spent most of our day yesterday securing a new space for my MIL. Not only did we manage to secure her a room in a really great assisted living facility, we also shopped for her entire pile of new furniture, required appliances, TV’s etc that she will need in said new space and…arranged to have every single thing delivered in a timely manner. Much more than we ever thought we could get handled in a single day. Let me tell you though, it feels pretty darn good to have that behind us now.
It did prompt a rather interesting conversation between the Hot Hub and I. How on earth do older folks manage all of this if they don’t have anyone to help them navigate it? PILES and I do mean PILES of paperwork to get all of the insurance and medical info handed over to the qualified folks. And more importantly, how do folks who maybe don’t have any discretionary income manage to just plunk down 5 grand for this, 2 grand for that and a few hundred here and there to get themselves settled into a facility where they can live safely with all of the nursing and medical care they need if they don’t have the funds to do all of that? How?
It scares me to think of this Elloise.
I am grateful that we had a means but to consider the amount of people who don’t…just makes me sad.
In any case, we will be spending our 25th anniversary setting up her room for her. I am not even upset to be spending such a significant day that way. We celebrate our successes in marriage on an almost daily basis. Yes, 25 years is a milestone however, every day is also one.
I always have such a mixed pile of emotions about this Elloise. Stuck between societal norms of what we “should” be doing and where life is for us. According to society, this should be kind of a big deal for us. 25 years is indeed significant. But for us, it’s a small blink of our life. I feel this way about so many things that society thinks we need to celebrate in some way or another. Almost like real things are a bit watered down now due to celebrating EVERY LITTLE THING.
This also leads me back to my need to establish some sort of traditions to mark the equinoxes and solstices. Those things resonate with me and most of the time, I barely acknowledge them. I gave this some thought at the Spring Equinox and discovered that I simply felt awkward celebrating alone. Isn’t that a weird thing to make you NOT do something? I have vowed to do better for myself, my spirituality and my beliefs moving forward.
I wonder Elloise, how you would choose to celebrate things, if at all? What is significant enough in your world to warrant that added fuss and circumstance? I imagine that you would celebrate…YOU.
Much Love,
S