Let’s just say I’ve had a rough year and a half, which is why disappeared from this blog, cancelled trips to Mexico, have been unable to write. I’ve recently been trying to get back into my old life, but found I couldn’t get any traction. Then, lo and behold, the universe, in the form of an email to my in box just today, showed me the way forward. Mount Madonna Center in Santa Cruz announced a workshop taught by Amelia Barili, a leading yoga and Qigong teacher who lectures on the embodied mind, healing and creativity at UC Berkeley, no less.
Just what I needed.
What happened to me? Why did I just disappear? Caregiver Fatigue, friends — a common story for women my age. Just pick up any magazine — Psychology Today, AARP. Read all about it. Most of the suggestions for how to cope are totally clueless. Caregivers, we need a whole new paradigm.
Enter Amelia Barili.
A few years ago, I made a promise to my father that I would take care of him. When the time came to honor that promise, it came at the worst possible moment. My husband, who had almost died from multiple pulmonary emboli a year before, and I had gone to Puerto Vallarta for a relaxing week on the beach. I brought a novel I was working on to revise and a book by David Corbett to review for a website the author Carmen Amato was putting together. BTW — Corbett will be at the San Miguel Writers Conference this spring. More BTW — check out Carmen Amato whose Emilia Cruz mystery novels have been optioned for films.
Anyway, life was good. My husband and I had one perfect day and night — sunset and full moon over the Pacific, palm trees, sound of the sea, the whole works. Then my husband fell, broke his hip and ended up in Hospital San Javier, the same hospital where Sheryl Sandberg’s husband died. A few days after that, I got a call telling me my father was dying of pneumonia, and I had to leave my husband in a hospital in Mexico and fly to North Carolina, where it was pretty much of a nightmare.
Now the good news: My husband did not have a heart attack or a blood clot in spite of hip surgery in Mexico. My father didn’t die. We all lived. I learned I was a lot stronger than I ever imagined and that my friends were wonderful. But, there was a psychic and physical cost. That’s why I evaporated from my blog. That’s why I will be taking this workshop.
Will let you know all about it.