Aging, caregiving and the journey through the second half of life

David Solie’s Painting Chosen For CURE 2022 Calendar

January 8, 2022

I am pleased to announce that I was one of 12 artists chosen to have their artwork displayed in Cure’s 2022 calendar. The open call for submissions was restricted to artist who are cancer survivors. Submissions had to include a…

On behalf of all the children…

November 6, 2021

The courage of love, the resilience of character, and the blessing of helping hands. On behalf of all the children who are unable to personally thank Ride-On for providing them with the divinely infused love and an unexplainable comfort that…

“The Older I Get” Inspired Painting

September 26, 2021

Alan Jackson’s song The Older I Get combines a reminiscent melody with lyrical insights about being old that are both memorable and profound. I especially like the verse about friendships and added it to one of my painting, which proved…

Complimentary Copies Of Two Essential Handouts For Caregivers And Their Families

September 25, 2021

If you are caring for an older adult, these two handouts may prove invaluable in helping you manage the stress of the caregiver role and the unavoidable wounds both generations incur in the process. You can order pdf copies…

The Wounded Heart

August 5, 2021

I was asked by the owner of a wellness retreat program to create a meditation for their workbook about overcoming life’s setbacks. We both agreed it was an appropriate topic given the brutal setbacks we all experienced this past year.…

Major Dave and The Dilemma of the Stairs

July 19, 2021

“Things do not always go according to plan.” David Richo from The Five Things We Cannot Change… The plan has always been for boomers to transition to smaller, one-story homes in the last phase of life. The underlying assumption of…

Moon Moods: The Disruptive Currents Of Pandemic Love

May 29, 2021

I’m not sure if the uneven tides of love that seep into every relationship were any differnet in theme during the pandemic that just passed through our lives, but iI am certian they felt more intense. Moon Moods is a…

Becoming Better Partners With Our Aging Parents

May 21, 2021

Better Together Love is the answer, at least for most of the questions in my heart Like why are we here? And where do we go? And how come it’s so hard? It’s not always easy and Sometimes life can…

Secrets Of Healthy Caregivers: The Four-Knows Strategy

May 2, 2021

It is well documented in the medical literature that the stress of caregiving poses a serious threat to caregiver health. What is not so well documented are strategies that can be implemented to mitigate this threat. One of these is…

Social Robots: A new wild card to stem the tide of loneliness of seniors?

April 19, 2021

Forget the half-adorable pet/half-clever child personality of the first iterations of social robots for seniors. From my perspective, they are an embarrassment that perpetuates the stereotypical image of infantilized older adults. Instead, let me introduce to you an inspiring vision…

For the Valentine you didn’t get or the one you didn’t send

February 14, 2021

Valentine’s Day is an odd celebration of the forgotten. Those are remembered are lavished with recognition, gifts and status, leaving the larger cohort of the unremembered to fend for themselves. This is where art can offer solace and inclusion with…

When I Think of You

January 9, 2021

This is the first work combining art and music that I’ve done where I created all the moving parts. I wrote the musical score, played it on the piano and painted all the art art.…

10 Post-Holiday Reminders For Caregivers-Number One

January 5, 2021

Sibling Rules We tell ourselves that things are going to be better this year between our siblings. We’re not going to react to their provocative remarks or rude behavior. Thee truth is we don’t even make it through the first…

Bite-Sized Comfort & Inspiration Anyone Can Afford

December 2, 2020

This week I released a new notecard set that features 10 of my favorite paintings, which are shown below. The set of all 10 and sets of 10 of the individual sets are available at my online Etsy Shop (see…

For whatever comes in life…

November 27, 2020

To have courage for whatever comes in life – everything lies in that…Saint Teresa of Alviar Courage by David Solie…

Pandemic by David Solie

November 9, 2020

“I have no idea what’s awaiting me, or what will happen when this all ends. For the moment I know this: there are sick people and they need curing.” Albert Camus, from The Plague …

Eiinaudi: The soundtrack of hope

October 24, 2020

Ludovico Maria Enrico Einaudi OMRI is an Italian pianist and composer. Trained at the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan, Einaudi began his career as a classical composer, later incorporating other styles and genres such as pop, rock, folk, and world music. …

The Qi of Spring

October 23, 2020

A painting that celebrates the energy of new beginnings… …

Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax: Beethoven in hard times

October 22, 2020

What an honor to hear Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax with their collective maturity and stunning technical skills both play and discuss Beethoven’s soaring Cello Sonata No. 3 in A Major in an empty auditorium at the Tanglewood Music Center,…

Free-Access 30-Minute Video: Closing the Communication Gap with Our Aging Parents

October 3, 2020

I created this video for adult children and their aging parents. It is information that both generations need to know about the psychology of the last phase of life. It restores dignity and purpose in the lives of older adults,…

My Digital Footpath…

September 24, 2020

Below is a blessing from the Celtic mystic, John O’Donohue that I am offering to all you who follow my spiritual wanderings on this digital footpath. Some of you I know and love. Your presence and friendship are divine scaffolding…

Our worse fears about Alzheimer’s patients trapped in the pandemic

September 17, 2020

The brutal isolation imposed by the pandemic on Alzheimer’s patients living in care facilities is straining their families to the limits as being implicated in thousands of ”excess” deaths of this vulnerable population. (see article in Washington Post) ”Overlooked…

Swept Away: Pandemic Death in Nursing Homes

August 20, 2020

Medical science can explain the chain of vulnerability that led to waves of death that COVID 19 visited in nursing homes. Wrong place. Wrong time. Luck is destiny. But our hearts know a much different story. Here’s mine. In my…

The Drama of Control Never Gets Easier and Never Goes Away

August 2, 2020

Control is the current we ride to the end. Sometimes It’s buried in a dilemma between two unsavory choices and no escape hatch. Sometimes heroic efforts to facilitate control provoke dilemmas we never saw coming. My point is that control…

Evidence-Based Inquiry Into Driving Skills

July 30, 2020

At some point, driving gets away from our aging parents. It’s an insidious process that lulls older adults into a false sense of security that their driving skills are still adequate. Adult children see a different picture of “unsafe driving”…

Who are the important people who passed through your life?

July 14, 2020

Life review asks us to reconsider people that have played an important role in who we are today. We are surprised that with the passing of time there has been an unexpected shift in opinions about people we were sure…

What the developmental tasks tell us about older adults

June 28, 2020

“Developmental stages in life are characterized by sets of oppositional tasks that need to be completed so the individual can move on to the next stage. These tasks are the drivers of personality growth, the internal engine that propels a…

The World Is Too Much With Us…

June 18, 2020

The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay was te our powers; Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! These famous lines…

The Obvious Audience No One Is Educating

May 29, 2020

I want to share with you a story about “How To Say It To Seniors” found a new audience unbeknownst to me. A few years ago, a colleague of mine shared how he used my book with older adults who…

Home Rules: We’re Not Going Anywhere

May 21, 2020

Older adults see where they live as the Alamo and will make their last stand defending it. We advance with logic, manipulations, and threats, and they use any means at their disposal to repel us. Here’s why. 1. The place…

Reason To Hope Update

May 11, 2020

Here is the link to the new order page on my art website where you can order Reason To Hope and The Last Time notecard boxes. …

Reason To Hope

May 6, 2020

This is my second deck of 10 front-folded note cards with envelopes. The deck is entitled Reason To Hope. These new paintings honor nature’s transformative beauty despite the dire predictions of a dark future. Granted, the long odds against turning…

We will never allow isolation to carry the day…

May 3, 2020

In his article, Coronavirus requires physical distance in end-of-life care. But we won’t let isolation prevail, Rev. Thomas Ryberg, a chaplain resident at Albany Med in Albany, New York,…

Secrets: A Powerful Form Of Control

April 30, 2020

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One Good Day

April 19, 2020

In the end, caregivers accept the limits of what they can control while making the best of what remains—a shift in focus to one good day at a time. Honoring the here and now offers a nurturing space for aging…

Corona Warrior Insignia

April 11, 2020

I created the Corona Warrior insignia to honor the healthcare workers on the frontlines of the corona virus pandemic, fearless souls who represent the edict Jesus spoke of in the New Testament when he said , “There is no greater…

Personal Touch Softens Social Distancing

March 22, 2020

We have stepped through the sociological looking glass to flatten out the pandemic curve only to discover yet another degree of digital isolation with social distancing and self-quarantine. I’m not saying texting, emails, and FaceTime doesn’t have a role in…

Divine Construct

March 14, 2020

Between the mundane and the horrific lies a divine construct trying to signal us reassurance and hope that there is a bigger game at play here, one that your heart will recognize and draw courage from as we make our…

Informed Control: The Art of Alignment

March 3, 2020

“I can’t believe I have to take a driving evaluation.” Nancy could hear how upset her father was at the idea of being retested to keep his driver’s license, “I have been a licensed driver for over 50 years, and…

The Real Work Of Families…

February 10, 2020

(As a writer, I always feel I’m best person to title my own articles, blogs and booklets. Of course, that’s just my willfulness not paying attention to better voices who have different take on what I have written. And so…

Family Rules are not a level playing field for Caregivers

February 10, 2020

Families are complex systems where minor changes can produce major consequences at any time and with out warning. Accepting this reality as an immutable law of the world of aging parents helps prevents exhaustive efforts to prevent them from happening. …

Social Fabric: The Key to Senior’s Quality of Life….

February 8, 2020

Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.—Aristotle After completing one of these Social Fabric Mind Maps you can suggest and provide more recreational activities, social outreach, and other ways to provide social support…

Sibling Rules

February 3, 2020

It’s a fact of family life: roles are cut in stone. Stop trying to change a sibling who for the most part resents your audacity to assume you have the right to “fix’ him or her. Accurately assess what a…

It was the kind of moon…

January 30, 2020

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Life Metaphor

January 16, 2020

This new painting, entitled Life Metaphor, depicts the polyphasic downpour of light and darkness on all our lives, a carpet bombing of lessons aimed at our spiritual growth whether we’re paying attention or not……

For Adult Children Caregivers of Aging Parents, Childhood Matters

January 13, 2020

The residue of childhood carries with it complex feelings about aging parents that limit objectivity, exaggerates responsibilities and increases emotional vulnerability. This distorted landscape makes it impossible for adult children to receive the approval the desperately seek from their aging…

Magical Thinking

January 7, 2020

Feeling overwhelmed, aging parents may turn to magical thinking to solve problems. Like denial, it allows them a way to defer the complexity and burden of a problem. Opting to continue unsafe driving, ignoring financial limitations or rejecting help with…

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