Dementia blessings – Communion

One of the gifts of spending time with a parent with dementia is that eventually you give up trying to have a conversation about the mundane doings of everyday, and sink into a slower, quieter, more heart-centered engagement. When I started allowing myself to be with Mum in this way, it felt like the difference between communication and communion …

Communion

Forgetting has untethered you
From time and space and ought and should;
Freed you from multitasking myths
That bind me to anxious adulthood.

Simply being right here, right now,
Beyond the reach of memories
Or clever plans or strategies,
You dwell in present timelessness.

Patiently you wait for me
To tire of the unnecessary
Conversations that ask and tell
Of ‘what we did’ – inconsequential!

At last my pace begins to slow.

No need for words as we commune;
Your loving gaze invites me home.
You beckon me to make a start
Upon a journey from head to heart.