Dear Reader:

A conversation with a friend triggered an “AHA” moment recently. She was telling me that some retired friends of her, a couple, had gone to one of the auditoriums in Charleston to hear a talk on memory loss. Later, at church, the wife told her she found it most interesting…particularly one piece of information shared. The  speaker emphasized that we all forget nouns faster than any other sentence part with memory loss…starting primarily with proper nouns since we don’t always use them on a regular daily basis.

“Yes!” that’s right” I thought to myself. Now that explains a lot of things. ***Please raise your hands if you have experienced any of the following embarrassing situations. (Misery loves company)

You walk in a room to get something and then you just stand there, feeling like an idiot…wondering what it was you were going to get? You call a business number and then panic as the phone rings because you can’t remember the person’s name you’re suppose to be asking for…someone you have talked with on several occasions. And finally, my worse scenario, I am excitedly telling someone about a movie or television show I like and then I can’t remember the name of it or perhaps the actor or actress who stars in it.

I decided to ‘google’ memory loss and honestly wish I had not. Thank goodness I don’t remember a lot of the complicated medical terms, which basically meant you’re getting older and your brain is losing a certain percentage of its “stuff’ each year that affects memory retention. (I decided after reading the article…that I am doomed…between numerous bouts of chemo plus cholesterol-lowering medicines…(two potential causes of memory loss) it “ain’t” looking good.)

One memory loss condition (definition) however, did bother me, because it really hit home. It was something called anomic asphasia or something like that…it is when you can’t remember the noun or proper noun you want to recall but you can give detailed clues about the person or thing. I do that a lot!

In fact it happened at Pawleys, a couple of weeks ago, during our THIS IS US television episodes marathon… the last Sunday we were at the beach before leaving. You might remember, that after a few days of 70’s and blues skies, the temps dropped over the weekend, the wind picked up, and it poured. We made the decision to wait and leave the next day, Monday instead of that rainy Sunday.

We were “inaugurated” out by then, since we didn’t care what the number in attendance was at the Inauguration (???) and a couple of us had started watching the wonderful new fall television series, THIS IS US. We had missed several episodes while the rest of the Ya’s had never seen it. So before we went to bed Sunday night we literally got caught up on every episode in 2016 and even the first episode in 2017. What a great show!

We would only pause for bathroom and snack breaks…but that was it. We were glued to each episode, sometimes laughing and sometimes crying. It was during this time that I had my ‘personal noun’ crisis. An actor I recognized from another show, Jon Huertas, (don’t be impressed …just googled his name) appeared in some of the early episodes. Every time he was on screen, I kept thinking that I knew who he was (not his actor name) but I recognized him from another show I used to watch…but I couldn’t remember the name of the popular show! Frustration!

I kept saying things like “Oh, come on now, y’all know who he is…he was on that detective show…darn it …what was its name…he played one of the two detectives in it to that pretty actress who was a NYP officer (can’t think of her name) and the cute main actor (can’t think of his name either) who played the part of a famous crime-detective author, who ends up solving crime cases with her?” 

For all that detailed information, I would only get a shrug and a non-committal shake of the head or grunt as everyone was completely absorbed in the show. Finally Jackson came up with it out of the blue. “Castle”…you are talking about “Castle” Boo!

“Yes!” I was deliriously happy! But then Jackson went on to say that she didn’t think the actor in this series was the same one as in “Castle” Still Jackson, being Jackson, my good history teacher comrade, looked it up and humbly (well not too humbly) declared that I was right…it was the same actor but he looked different with silver hair.

OH! The sweet taste of victory! Finally! Doesn’t things like that drive you batty? I hate not being able to pull up a name at the moment I need to have it. I am not going to complain about getting older, however, because I fight too hard daily to keep doing just that…maybe God in all His wisdom helps us slowly ease into the transition of leaving this home for another… by not being able to remember it all.

This morning at 9:00 I will be at Dr. Montoya’s office for my regular check-up…with the new chemo medicine …I feel sure my blood work will most likely show a big dip from an exceptionally good report before the new treatments started. But, hey, I am here, eating well and loving life…there’s a lot to be said just for that.

When I saw this sign…I had to laugh….thank goodness for Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield… no office payments! Thank you Lord for making me a teacher…I have made up (and probably surpassed) in medical pensions what I never got in salary! God works in mysterious ways!

So until tomorrow…Father, forgive me my transgressions that I remember doing and those I don’t…You never have a memory loss of what I have or have not done in Your Name…Instead You have given us grace and unconditional love. I will take that any time!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Looks like several of our readers are jumping in on “listen” and like Jan Hilton, “patience” for 2017.  My lovely friend, Carolyn Sweat said she was certainly on board with these terms.

Our wonderful, witty Jo Dufford sent this comment:

This is like a God’s wink for me because I have continued to look for my word this year, and consequently will be a theme for my next Circle program. Over and over the word, Listen, has popped up, and I thought, “That’s it”, but I still kept listening for another word. Then today your message hit me, and I thought, “Well, Jo, that must be what God has been telling you.” Thanks. I love the saying that God gave us one mouth and two ears, so He must have intended us to listen twice as much as we talk.

Ann Graves found her word going back down memory lane and a God Wink too!

Hey Becky,

I had been thinking about what my word for the year would be and then you wrote about “How are you today”. The best answer I’ve ever heard came one summer morning at Pawleys. I would get up before sunrise and walk the beach. I stopped in at the Sea View Inn one morning to relive some memories of a wonderful week spent there in the 80’s. No one was around except the black cook setting up for breakfast. I asked her the question and she looked me in the eye and said I am Blessed.

 So Blessed is my word for the year. Amazing how often it is out there in word and action (from God) when you look for it.

Thank you for your blogs and where they take me emotionally and spiritually.   Peace & Love,  Ann