After I posted a story about my frustration in caring for my Mom who is a moderate to progressed phase of multi-infarct dementia, I got a comment from another blogger Demented Girl that made me giggle. In the past week, I’ve been thinking about a skit that Saturday Night Live used to do with Tom Hanks who was Mr. Short Term Memory. Here is a link to one of the skits where he is visiting his friend in the hospital. I ache for a comedy about this tragic disease. While it’s no laughing matter, I think the skit does a good job of reminding me how much I’ve improved my skills being patient as I’ve traveled this journey.

Some days I wonder if I’m too accepting of things I can’t change. I have a morning ritual of meditation where I will review my mental checklist of the things I want and how to get there. It has helped me become more focused as well as eliminate “worry” from my vocabulary. I find that worry doesn’t help me do better, it actually diminishes my abilities. I’ve been on a mission to completely read the bible in a year, and it’s part of my meditation. It’s helped me eliminate some harmful emotions – self-doubt, judgement and worry. Many of us on this path have shared that it’s changed us in positive ways. While some days it sure doesn’t feel that way, I know that it’s teaching me skills I failed to learn the first half of my life. Grown. 

The intro jiggle to the skit: “Mr Short Term Memory, he shouldn’t have stood under the pear tree, now there is just no remedy, he will frustrate you so, but he’ll never know, because he’s Mr. Short Term Memory.”