Sunday, August 22, 2010

(sigh)  The days go by.  My father is getting better, even walking much of the time now.  He still is not able to drive, and my mother needs daily care.  My uncle has been in the hospital for over a week and will be released to assisted living, quite possibly permanently.  We have been dealing with my aunt, whose early stage Alzheimer’s has been aggravated by the stress of my uncle’s illness.

 And all of the reasons I left so many years ago are flooding back at me.  There are too many to reveal here, but as I relive the same scenarios and conversations of my teens, I’m trying to count to ten, walk away or tune out this time.   At least I’ve found that I’ve become more patient and wiser(?) with age, finally realizing that nothing I say will change the decades-old attitudes and patterns now.
 

It is day by day, and most of my time is spent in this isolated little world.  I try to spend positive time by myself every couple of days.  Yesterday I drove to Wheeling, hoping that the Greek church festival would be more exciting than it was.  I took a couple of photos of colorful belly dancing wear, then went to the Central Market on the next block.   Poked my head into a couple of shops (including a little wine shop kind of reminiscent of Spirited) and shot a few little details along the streets.