by Bruce McIntyre | Apr 17, 2015 | Caregiving
Loneliness abates when you connect with people who get it Driving past the ballpark on a humid September morning, I spotted the promotional signs. Men in small tractors and bobcats were moving dirt around to prepare the way for one of our town’s most distinguished...
by Bruce McIntyre | Apr 13, 2015 | Caregiving
We are all wired to love and connect, even the introverts! She had been stung. By life, not a bee. In fact, a bee sting might have been easier. Through a series of unfortunate events, she realized one morning that she was isolated and lonely. In retrospect, it was all...
by Bruce McIntyre | Apr 4, 2015 | Caregiving
Not every day is full of “bluebirds on your shoulder.” Problem finders, negative people, and fussy folks bump into us. Stuff happens. Not all of it ideal. Create beautiful moments anyway. Take a moment, take a hike, or take someone you love on an ice cream...
by Bruce McIntyre | Mar 27, 2015 | Caregiving
Short term adversity calls on our sense of courage, but so does long term adversity. Perhaps more so. When faced with years and even decades of a chronic condition, both patient and caregiver experience the gamut of mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical...
by Bruce McIntyre | Mar 20, 2015 | Resilience
If you are still breathing, you either have had or will have some adversity of some sort. When times get difficult, we are challenged to interpret with hope and determination. In his book, Boundaries for Leaders, Dr. Henry Cloud elaborates on the notion of the 3...
by Bruce McIntyre | Mar 13, 2015 | Resilience
On April 19, 1995, I was on the phone with a college bookstore in California when our office building shook and some of the windows blew out. I was working in downtown Oklahoma City. During those first days and weeks, we learned of staggering loss. Everyone was...
by Bruce McIntyre | Mar 5, 2015 | Resilience
Once I heard someone remark, “I was in a bad mood one time…for a few years!” Yikes! This was a couple of decades ago, so I found it difficult to fathom at that point in life. Now however, I think I could understand. We all hit bad moods and...
by Bruce McIntyre | Feb 24, 2015 | Serendipity
A mere forecast of snow is enough to elicit… squeals from children… restful longing from adults… visions of no school, no work, needed rest. Snowfall captures and feeds our inner sense of beauty and serenity… with large, soft...
by Bruce McIntyre | Feb 20, 2015 | Spiritual Stuff
What do people talk about at the end? A hospice chaplain describes what she has learned: They talk about the love they felt, and the love they gave. Often they talk about love they did not receive, or the love they did not know how to offer, the love they withheld, or...
by Bruce McIntyre | Feb 13, 2015 | Serendipity
Recently, I heard this interesting perspective on our postures toward love: The young are excited and enamored with the possibilities of love. The middle-aged tend to often be disillusioned. And the old are appreciative for love. While these descriptions may be...
