Good Belly Yoga

There are so many people out there telling you what to do to be better, more happy, more healthy, and richer but…

Truth is the most precious thing you will always have in your life is your time and how you spend it.

Today I am sad because one of my favorite icons passed: Dolly Parton.

She lived a full life, had an astute business sense, and managed to have a good relationship with the one man that mattered most in her life, yet when he began to stray, the song she wrote about it “Jolene” became one of the biggest hits of her lifelong career. She knew how to grow out of her difficulties through her art.

She grew up in Appalachia, very poor, but full of herself and enjoying life as it was, and became famously wealthy because she had a beautiful voice and presence.

I couldn’t imagine a better life than that. Her story has always been an inspiration to me because she knew what she wanted in life, insisted upon it, and as she grew as a person, achieved it.

Today I tried to live my own truth:

I took my husband (who has dementia and can be difficult to deal with somedays) out to get a mani/pedi with me. He loved it, and so did I.

We have done a lot of work to understand what he needs to live another day when he can’t remember anything from yesterday, or what he had for breakfast…but he was happy today because we did something together we both enjoyed and needed to get done that made sense to him. We felt the good of the day together. It was time well spent.

I often want to criticize myself for not being enough for the task in front of me, which now is being good to the man whom I have lived with and loved all my life. I often don’t know how to respond to his requests and desires which are not possible. I often have to say no, not now, and/or try to find a way both of us might be happy.

However, today, something came together, and both of us got satisfied that we had lived the best day of our lives together.

I felt like I had spent my time with him well.