Pause explained -
... here's what I'm up to next and how y'all can help
to all of you lovely people here who have supported my vision of finding wonder in care -
I am pausing my essays here so that I can focus on two things:
1) launching a huge new and bold initiative with TimeSlips, the non-profit I founded to train and inspire people to infuse creativity into care.
AND, 2) turning these essays into a book - aimed at helping family members / caregivers navigate this journey with joy and meaning.
The tiny TimeSlips team is launching an ambitious campaign to create 10 Million Moments of Joy and Connection by training 1,000 Trainers and 25,000 caregivers.
We’ve been crazy busy over the last year - creating and testing a whole new training system. And now we inch toward public launch…
This campaign acts as both our new mission - and a fundraising campaign to raise $1,000,000 over 3 years. Since we started (in the quiet phase) in October, we have raised $233,000 - or almost a 1/4 of the way there.
The book I envision doesn’t have many “comps.” It is part Artists Way and part Caregiver Manual. Part poetic essay and part “try this at home.” My biggest hope for it is that this as yet unwritten book is given as a gift to a friend going through the experience, and that that reader finds the essays give them courage to try - to open a challenging moment with imagination to find meaning. And to laugh, even amidst all the sadness.
Here’s how you can help.
Watch this video for the TimeSlips campaign - and share it with anyone you think might be open to / interested in supporting a non-profit with a bold vision to transform dementia care. Not with robots or AI. But with enriching care relationships with wonder and creativity. It works. We have data. A lot of it.
Inside the deck/video is the video on our work made by AARP - I couldn’t figure out how to get it to play inside the other video… so here is the link directly.
This version on Facebook has 3 million views, which is crazy.Of course you can donate... You all are getting advance notice on this campaign. It’ll go public in March(ish) when we have the website rebuilt. But if you donate now, I’ll send you a tiny, but special gift in the mail.
Re the BOOK - The Little Caregiver Repair Shop.
Lots of fun ways to help:tell me which essays / prompts you found most meaningful.
tell me which parts of the care journey you think I should be sure to touch on
create your own sub-title for the book that captures the wonder, joy, connection, meaning - that is hidden inside this experience. I have a good dozen sub-titles scratched out on my notepad…and but none seem quite right.
I have so thoroughly loved being with you here each week for the past 14 months!
And I really really look forward to hearing your input.
There is a great big collective ache out there - people whose parents, spouses, friends - are experiencing cognitive challenges. And we have so much we can do to help each other through it - if we can just pierce the bubble of stigma and silence.
Until soon -
daughter of this spitfire…
