Day 4 of aging week! I missed yesterday, just a bit too busy between visiting my dad in the hospital and taking some time off. Sorry about that.
Having dealt with my elderly father all week, trying to get him up and moving after a hip break, I have seen once again how important motivation and enthusiasm is to recovery. In his case we are helping him remember his friends back at his assisted living home (his girlfriends at his dining table in particular)!
But enthusiasm is more than motivation. It is about interest, curiosity, feeling like you have something to reach for, something you want to know about. In my father’s case he has started to think he might want to live to 100. It’s a goal, it’s something to think about and imagine.
We are encouraging that by saying we are expecting another party (we have one every 10 years for his big birthdays) so we expect him to live to 100. He might not make it, we understand it, and he understands it. But we have hope, and we have enthusiasm and we impart that to him as best we can. That is the key, not just to have it in yourself, but to figure out ways to impart it to others.
Drawing © Marty Coleman