Things To Be Thankful For, with Daphne Davis
Daphne Davis at Pinnacle Senior Placements helps us think of things to be thankful for during COVID crisis.
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*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.
The following podcast is provided by pinnacles senior placements, ll see and answers for elders radio. And welcome everyone back to answers for elders radio. And I am here staying home and staying healthy as well as so it’s Daphnee Davis from pinnacles senior placements. Daphne, welcome back to the program hello everyone, I’m so happy to be here. Well, I’m happy you’re here too, because we started off this amazing hour talking about gratitude and I think there’s a lot of things to be grateful for during this time and sometimes we can’t find it. And I’m really intrigued by when you said go to each room, and you know, I’m sitting here in my living room and I have to say, Daphne, I’m looking across the room into my China cabinet and I am looking at all of my mom’s beautiful China that she bequeathed to me and her crystal. And you know what’s really come out of this is that I have a golden doodle. I have to tell you many little this story and I’m the Admin for Washington doodle owners on facebook and we have probably about one hundred people in this group that they all own a doodle dog of some sort. Right, and so I decided that I wanted to do something fun while we’re all staying home, and so I said, why don’t we all do something that we stage our doodles having fun in some way, using items around your house for photos, and we’ll do a contest and whoever has the best photo will win the cover photo for me. Right, and we’re getting all these ideas coming out and so I’m sitting there thinking what am I going to do with my dog, and all of a sudden I thought, wow, you know, a couple of years ago I was the mad hatter for Halloween. I’m a mad hatter costume and I’ve got some neighbor kids out in the yard. That we could do is social distancing and we’re going to do a mad hatter tea party with with doodle dogs. And I mean we’re all standing six feet apart. It’ll be fun. But you know, I’m so grateful for creativity right now and being able to get out there and seeing so many of people’s ideas and and how they’re doing things to integrate into their neighborhoods and you know, you have neighbors that you don’t come within sixteen, but there’s relationships that you’re building that you may never have not done before, and that’s the thing that’s really cool about the whole thing. So tell me a little bit more about what your experiences are. Well, when I when I it stuck on my gratitude and I’m I’ll give you a simple example. In the room that I’m sitting in right now there is a very s quilt sitting on my couch and it’s when I graduated, actually as s but it was given to me when I graduated from High School One thousand nine hundred and eighty two, and my aunt made it for me and it has been perfect. One side of it has really bright colored squares of polyester material, so anyone who knows polyester knows that it’s never going to wear out, never right quill get there. And on the back side she has a very nice sheet of a floral sheet on the backside, but it’s a pretty bright, I’m going to say Gaudy thing, but it makes me think of my aunt Lois and I doug it out of all and I put it out and I think of my aunt Lois and all of the things that I have to be grateful from her, the things that she taught me. She lived across the field from me, you know, in northern Minnesota, and I’d walked there in the summertime and, you know, we would just chat as they walked across the field. But things like that. You can see an item in your room now, you know, I’m looking at another thing, a picture on the wall, and it says a meal without wine is called breakfast. Well, that just makes me laugh, and so I’m like, I’m grateful for laughter and the ability to laugh. Yes, Hey, and but at the end time, my head right now, I mean this is all spontaneously happening, my head went to it’s go a way that I can help other people laugh. And soil thinks about some people that are in their homes, at home, living by themselves, or in assistance living buildings or, you know, wherever you’re at, and a rehab community. Think about is there’s some way that I could make people laugh. I’m thankful for for laughter. How can I share that with others? Now this might be well on your sulation. It might be that you can write down a joke or you could start not knock joke and the nurses are CNA’s can bring it down the hallway and everybody can start enjoying the same knock knock joke. Need me, amazing how we do this that one still have to, you know, pay attention to our quarantine things and things to keep us help healthy. Here are ways of being creative. So that’s a absolutely thing. I’m thankful for laughter. Can you imagine life without laughter? It’d be awful. I can’t imagine. I can’t imagine. I know, and so little thing. You know, yes, and and what you’re saying is so valuable because you know every single moment you can choose to be happy. You can’t, no matter what it is, and making that choice, it’s like you could choose to be lonely, you could choose to be happy. You and I’m not saying to be Pollyanna, I’m not saying not to be real. You know about it, but I think one of the things that that I know that we have there’s there’s challenges right now with the Presson. I get it, and there’s some people that have depression that are you know, that are challenged with with these times. But you know, I think one of the things. One of the things that causes disappointment and unhappiness is expectations, and I know like for my birthday, of my birthday was last week and I totally had given up on any expectation whatsoever that I was going to have any birthday at all. You know, I think it’s okay, I’m not going to get a birthday this year. Do you know that? Jeffny? It was one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had and so amazing because I truly, I mean I am so grateful to my husband, my sweet husband, because he knocked it out of the park and he got created and he did natively and he was, you know, I had surprises all day from him, deliveries that showed up at the house and phone calls from people, and then, you know, I decided to get together with many of my friends and and associates and business associates and people like that all came to a zoom party and we talked about what we’re grateful for and my soul was so filled on Friday at the end of the day, I thought, you know what, it’s truly been the best birthday of my life. It really was, howing, wonderful things my joy all day long, and I think that is where, you know, we can choose to find our happiness. But on the other hand, I think a big part of that was letting go of my expectation of what I think things should be. You know I’m saying. You bring up a really good point, because nothing is normal right now. Nothing, we have very few routines that have been able to main be being pained, and so letting go of what we know to be this is supposed to happen, the expectation, is really a good step in that direction. As I was listening to you, Susan, I was thinking about how your husband was doing these little special things throughout the day and for all of you, I don’t care if you’re, you know, twenty, or twelve or eighty eight, you can do something for someone else. There is so many creative ways that you can reach into someone else’s life. It could be if you’re in your neighborhood, you can take a walk, you’re doing your social distancing, take a little walk and you could call your friend, your neighbor from the street and pound to go to the window and just wait up them and half a face to face conversation over the phone. I mean, how simple is that? In the sunshine, you could see somebody. I know we’ve got spring flowers that are coming out. You can go out in your yard and cut some of those tulips and, you know, put them in a Piam up, put them in a little vase or put some paper towel, you know, around the bottom and just lay them on someone’s front step and call them later or let them to discover them in the little you know, nine for prize. It is so awesome. And I know I had neighbors that texted me and said walk out to your front porch and I had like six people stand out there and one of them had like a little birthday cupcake, another one had a little at a bag, you know, of a president, another one had a couple of tulips, like you said, and it was like they all seeing me happy birthday, and it was like wow, you guys, I’m just you know, and it’s and it’s so cool because I’m going virtual hugs, you know, because obviously, yes, you know, I’m in my I’m in my S. I just turned sixty four, so I’m considered on the bubble here of higher risks. So I have to be extra careful and knowing that you know and knowing the little things that bring you joy. It’s like would I would I have had that richness of experience had I not been in this mode? And I don’t know necessarily I would have, because I might have had different expectations. I met even busy, I might have gone out to lunch, I might have been doing all kinds of things that are disrupting my day without just giving me a moment to to be quiet and grateful for the moments that we have in our lives. And and I certainly I told I told keep my husband it’s the best birth day I’ve ever had in my life and I want to let you know that. You you did this for me and and you know, I was just blown away. I was blown away and little things, how they can make such a difference in our lives. They certainly can. Yes, they can. So I want to tell another six story. Yesterday I was cleaning my refrigerator. We know how terrible that job is, and have everything out and just cleaned it. My back was killing me, as like, Oh, I’m so glad this job’s done, but it was one of my to do things instead of just sitting there or going and getting water or sitting on my back, back or whatever. I decided I was going to call my motherin law and I talked to my mother in law, who lives in Denver and she’s in total isolation right now, and I talked to her for eight minutes. I was it’s eight short minutes, and I just I was honest with her and I said, Margaret, you are my break. I just got done doing this and we were, you know, talking about my activities. But when you think of something, do it. That’s the point of my story. I thought about Margaret and I was like, I’m going to caller just color was eight minutes and I brightened her day and I got my back to relax and thought about other things. So be intentional. If there’s one thing that you can get from this hour is be intentional about what you’re doing and be aware of what you’re thinking. Be Aware of what you’re choosing to think about, be aware of what you’re choosing to do, because you do have choice breaking and I know it takes extra energy, but we can do it. So definitely, before we sign off to this segment, how do we reach you? Best way is with my phone number, which is eight five, five, seven three four fifteen hundred, and most often I’ll answer that phone call. I’m the on the person that’s at the frontline. Most often again, that’s eight hundred and fifty, five, seven, three four on fifteen hundred. And then, of course, my website, which is Pinnacle Senior Placementcom. All right, everyone, dapite will be right back right after this. The preceding podcast was provided by pinnacles senior placements LLC and answers for elders radio. To contact pinnacles senior placements, go to Pinnacle Senior Placementscom
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Originally published April 19, 2020