Dear Brooke,

Thanks to Scholars, I left from my last visit with my mom with a heavy heart. I really enjoyed my visit with her and was sad to leave. This is in such stark contrast to the previous 30 years where I hated most of my time there and couldn’t wait to leave.

Now she is having some really severe confusion and not recognizing familiar people. She lives alone though I handle all her finances and scheduling.

Here are my models, though they feel shaky:

C – Mom’s confusion

T – I should have a plan in place.

F – Inadequate

A – Harsh judging of myself

R – Bad feelings and no plan

For the intentional one I started with how I wanted to feel and worked from there.

C – Mom’s confusion

T – I don’t want her to lose her independence.

F – sad

A – stay in close contact with her

R – ??

She’s going to lose her independence, so how do I want to feel about that? Sad. Resolved? This feeling sad about my mom is so new (and uncomfortable!). I want a feeling that produces some action to help my mom.

Thank you,
Sandra