We are surrounded by people we touch and we don’t even know we’ve affected their lives, as today’s Thursday Thought quote points out.
Tag Archive for touch
Personal: The Human Touch
Thank you for your patience while I took some time off from my blog (as well as from many other things). It has been a hard space in my life, laying to rest my beloved husband of 35+ years. Being without him will continue to be hard.
But the experience reminded me of the importance of the human touch. His fingers grazing mine when he needed something from the bedside table he couldn’t reach. His smile as I rubbed his feet while we talked, with me doing most of the talking. Mutual reassurance at 3 A.M. when I’d hear irregular breathing, lay a hand on his chest, and feel the pattern change to calmness. That little current flowing between us as we held hands for our morning couple-prayers, even after the actual words came only through my lips.
Hugs of children, grand-children, and friends–hugs that brought healing tears and pushed away fears and anticipated loneliness. And all their cheek-kisses, back caresses, adjusting wayward strands of our hair, finger massages, and quiet hand-holding for both of us and for each other.
During times of grave illness and death, loving people are frustrated because they really do want to do something to help. So they say, “If there’s anything at all that I can do….” What I want to say to many of them is that their simple touch brought us both so much comfort and encouragement. To others I’d say that God gave us each a body so we can minister to each other through the grace of a simple human touch.
Why Do We Say That?
Today I’d like to look at some terms that don’t make sense to me, ones we use to soften the real meaning (why?) Yet we all use them.
Pass away: I’ll accept this one for the sake of loved ones, although most people don’t slowly and gently “pass” into death.
Gentleman’s club: Come on–it’s a strip joint! A gentleman, in the old sense of the word–and it IS an old fashioned concept–wouldn’t be caught passing away in such a place.
Assaulted: This is a blanket term for everything from a mugging to a groping of a woman’s breast to rape. I don’t like it because it minimizes the violent crime of rape. Yes, they’ll eventually call a rape a “sexual assault,” which still diminishes the crime. Rape is rape!
Touched inappropriately: No, she was groped or had some other physical advance perpetrated on her against her will. “Touched” sounds so gentle, and “inappropriately” sounds like there’s an appropriate way to do it.
Near miss: Not really. The two airplanes nearly collided. If it was a near miss, they would have crashed into each other. But barely missing something makes us more comfortable than almost becoming vulture food.
Okay. I’ll climb off my stack of dictionaries–for now.
Hope for People with Alzheimer’s
Although teenage music may drive you up a tree, if you have Alzheimer’s–even late stage–the right music can do wonders for you. It can stimulate your memory, make you active or quiet you down, redirect your attention when you become agitated, and lead you to situations in which you feel comfortable with the human touch.
Read the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America’s fascinating article, Education and Care/Music. It gives hope to anyone who has a loved one suffering from not only Alzheimer’s but any form of dementia.