Life in a Day or A Day in the Life

I am sitting here on a Saturday morning (7/24/2010) and much of my family is at the cabin.  I'm here with MiMi waiting for my turn to go up next week.  It's a long story about 2 groups of people coming for annual events that we can't all be available for so we are splitting up our time.

Anyway, today YouTube is challenging everyone to video a day in their world and someone is going to put together a feature film of one Day on Earth.  Could be cool.  I may or may not participate.  I have a ton of video equipment (as you may well know) and on any given day could be doing any one of 10 different things I am "passionate" about.  But EVERYDAY (for the last year at least) has offered up ONE THING.  MiMi's slow but beautiful, graceful and emotionally draining demise.

Life in a day?
How about death of a life?
Forget about life AND death.
What about Life TO Death .  . . in a month after month struggle to simply make her comfortable in these last few months of her life. We lift her from bed to wheelchair, change her clothes and diapers, feed her and remind her to swallow her food or water (because she forgets).  She is awake only a few hours a day and carried around from chair to chair to bed, to chair again while she waits . . . for what?  To get better?  I doubt it.

But she's a happy person.  Never complains about pain or discomfort (so she takes NO drugs, except for a sleeping pill at night . . . she always wants her sleeping pill at night ;) and smiles when she can, and is just pretty much an easy going person. She's sleeping now.  Snoring away on my baby monitor.  Maybe I'll have a little time to get my camera out and share a day in our life.

I'm sure we can't be alone.  I'm always amazed at how many stories I hear about people who have taken care of loved ones in their final years.  The human spirit is amazing.  I know there are a lot of people alone out there, and who, unlike Mimi don't have family caring for them in their own home.  It doesn't always work out so well for everyone.  But we all do the best we can with what we have to work with.

Please comment or follow this blog if you are one of those people.  Maybe who has seen a loved one through their death, or is in the middle of their care taking at this moment.  If you are reading this real time . . join the Life in a Day project or watch for it.  I'm sure it will be more than life as "we" know it, but sometimes when we feel alone or overwhelmed, seeing or hearing about the lives of others puts it all back in perspective.

Whether or not I participate in the Life in a Day project (I'll share if I do) you can go to my website(s) and learn more than you'd ever need to know about me at www.KayZahn.com

OK?
Que?
Oh Kay (you are so funny)

The Blog has a follower ! Que?

Natalee - You are the FIRST follower of THIS blog.  I know you found this one through the contests on my others, but you thought enough of my dribble to follow it.  What a sweetie.  Now I have to give you a prize. I have your email address so we'll talk.  I am just catching up, but I see your comments on my other blog about 9/11.

I am sorry for the loss of your friend.  The shear number of lives lost during those dark days was overwhelming and I cried from September 11th until November 15th or so.  My daughter (who was in kindergarten at the time) said one day, "Mommy are you still crying because those planes hit the buildings?" and I realized how my not getting help was affecting my family.  So I went to see my doctor, came home with some pills that made me feel much better in about 10 days.  I can't even really describe what I was feeling (anyone suffering with depression knows what I am trying to say) but I was just profoundly sad.  Not Hopeless really, but I know that's one of the feelings folks can fight.  No I have a wonderful family and career and money and every thing I needed to NOT be sad, but I was.

Anyway, lucky for me, that medication worked well and consistently.  I know folks who suffer and can't find the right combination for them.  I am one of the lucky ones.  Twice in these last 9 years I've tried to stop taking them.  But the profound sadness comes back.  It's really quite odd, because as you can see I am an outgoing, optimistic sort of person.  Normally.

OK I've bored you (and anyone else who drops by this blog) enough.  I just wanted to thank you NATALEE for following Que Life.  Do you speak spanish?  The name is a play on my name and that word.  Not a very funny one, but it tickles me.  And by now you know, if it makes me happy, I share.      Kay (que)

The winter of 2010.  Unlike many have ever seen before.  Really.  The old folks in Greer are saying never in their lifetime in Greer do they remember this much snow.  Our house doesn't do justice to the snow that was dumped on the town.  It's so big and has a lot of "drifting" space.  Our friends up the hill didn't fare quite so well.  The snow just buried them.

A sign of the times.

Yesterday afternoon my husband came into the kitchen and asked if I had given anyone permission to put a sign in our yard.  I had not of course, and couldn't figure any reason they would, given the lack of political season of any kind (not that I put signs in my yard during elections . . because I don't, usually) so I of course went right out there to see what was going on.

Wierd enough, it was one of my neighbors along with her father putting up a sign that was made by a group of grade school children as a Thank You for a donation that I had made.  It wasn't much really, the donation.  Just a bunch (a large bunch) of beads and jewelry findings that I had and they needed to make gifts for their parents for the holidays.  Most of the beads were a result of my daughter and I having been obscessed (ok, she just played with me, I was obscessed) with clay.  The kind you make and bake till hard and usable in sculptures, beads, and other things you'd do with clay.  We made so many of them it was CRAZY.

Then I made the beads in to bracelets and things until I went crazier, and then I put them all away, for what was a number of years.  Until the neighbor put out a request via email for donations of this sort if anyone had stuff.  It was the perfect opportunity to clean out a shelf that held a past obscession and make room for another. . . . AND . . AND . . AND

I get a tax write off for the cost of supplies and etc.  That is just SWEET.

I mean, the sign (hand signed by the kids) is sweet enough, but tax write offs . . well, I just love them too.

Oh yea, this week I started 2 blogs.  Who thinks I have enough to say to fill or even post to, ONE blog, let alone 2.  I know.  I know.  I don't know when enough is enough.  Maybe someday I'll learn.  Today I'm just happy someone was able to make use of my creative stuff. . .

Check out the other blog too.

The Joy of The Joy of Painting (with Bob Ross and Kay Zahn) it's likely as lively as this one :)