Sometimes God stops us in our tracks and gives us times to recharge our batteries, whether we like it or not. This week has been like that for me.
As I’ve struggled with the flu, it’s been a case of doing the essentials. Anything else has had to be put on hold. So, it’s been a week of bible study and prayer, writing my blogs but little else, and doing crosswords, reading or watching DVDs, when the head could not focus on print. This means several of my blogs have, or will, result from movies I’ve watched.
One was ‘The Notebook’ which my husband bought me recently. It seemed to follow naturally on from my last blog about things we hold onto. If you haven’t read the book by Nicholas Sparks or seen the movie it is the story of a man reading to his wife, who has dementia or Alzheimer’s, from a notebook that contains their love story.
Caution – don’t attempt to watch this movie unless you have a full box of tissues handy.
The heartbreak is sometimes she remembers for a short time as he reads. Other times she doesn’t have a clue who he is. Despite the doctor insisting that reading to her does no good, her husband, Noah, played so well by James Garner, keeps on reading to her – hoping to bring her memory back. It’s rather like the Helen Keller quote on my calendar today ‘the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.’
I could think of nothing worse that losing your memory and losing all those precious mementoes we store inside us of our lives. Yet one in approximately eight baby boomers will suffer Alzheimer’s Aimee’s’ blog tells me.
None of us knows what the future holds for any of us, whether we will fall victim to this dread disease. I read once that people who read a lot, do crosswords and jigsaws are less susceptible to Alzheimer’s. Is it truth or an urban myth, I don’t know. I’d like to believe it’s true and it appears some evidence supports this.
What I do know us is how important it is to store up those precious memories of our lives while we can and thank the Lord God for them. And also how important it is to tell our family and friends and our Lord how much they mean to us, in case one day we are in that dreadful position of not being able to remember. Let’s not waste the days we have.
Please visit these related blogs
Too many baby boomers are facing Alzheimers
Angry and helpless as my Mom loses it
Is it okay to be angry with God? part 2