I’m visiting my 87 year old father who is under hospice care, nearing the end of his life’s journey. Over the coming weeks, I expect I’ll be doing a lot of reflecting on the things he taught us kids growing up.
He came from a family of old-fashioned Iowans. One thing Grandma always used to say to keep the peace between squabbling siblings was, “If you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all.”
In the spirit of lessons learned from our elders, this is all I have to say about hunters, trappers and other animal abusers…
I love your sense of humor!
Thanks Beth, good to hear you appreciate it!
Your ability to do that makes you a better person than I.
You must have missed some of my earlier blog posts;)
Well said! The hunter’s heart is as devoid of feelings for an animals life, as your response.
Thanks Susan, you’re right!
Jim,
I’m sorry to hear about your father. Its a very difficult time. I lost my father 4 years ago and it was game changing as they say. i suspect your father may have given you some thoughtful reflections on living life and sharing your environment with the natural world, as did mine, I really really miss him every day. I hope you have some peace in this.
Thanks Louise, and sorry for your loss. Yes, difficult — I’m not getting a lot of sleep lately
Sometimes much is said in the silence. Point heard loud and clear.
There ya go–you got it
Jim, as you already know I lost my mom this year. I’ll be keeping you in my thoughts over the coming weeks.
Thanks Maureen, I appreciate it. I knew you could relate. Again, sorry for your loss
What an ordeal this thing is, we went through the hospice experience with our mom 6 years ago and our dad 5 years ago. We kept up the pressure on hospice caretakers to keep giving our mom more morphine. Morphine is truly a blessing, it made her exit as peaceful and painless as possible. I hope your dad has as good a death as possible, Jim. This is one of our hugest trials, losing our parents; get through this and you can get through anything.
Thanks Laura, we went through this with both of my wife’s parents a few years ago. In this case, my mom is the primary hospice caretaker, which makes it hard on her too. Fortunately, he’s not in as much pain as he could be yet, but I agree that morphine can be a blessing when the pain gets unbearable. There’s definately a downside to people living longer these days. It often means they suffer longer too.