ADL (typically, in OT dialect, Activities of Daily Living)
Carriers of Life
for Lolly & Sylva
Let me tell
you, little one,
If they were
to cart your mother off to the end of Wing 1 every week and roll her up onto
the scale, they would notice a perceptible change in her: that’s
you.
Your mother
has chosen a lifestyle that includes, on any given day, responding to one
confined to sitting in a chair.
The way her
deft eyes and perceptive mind
Interact
with wrinkled hearts
is a
response of yes to life and all of
its abnormalities and unpredictabilities.
And she has
said yes to you, too.
You mother
bears hope of new life.
She who knows
that Dependency is a part of life,
who knows
that falls happen,
will welcome
you into a world where she knows that you will fall,
again and
again.
She
Who deals
mindfully with dressing and bathing every day,
Who has
heard confused cries and responded,
Whose hands
attempt to craft responses to pain,
Who intuits
that progress take time,
Who has
found ways to lift the near-lifeless out of bed,
Who makes a
safety plan for one unable to make it for himself,
Who consults
within a team on behalf of the interest of another,
Who has felt
the spectrum of human need and responded,
is anticipating
your arrival.
You have not
experienced gravity yet, nor do you know the coordination and balance this life
asks.
You do not
know about breath yet. It is something
your mother measures in others. In
preparing for your arrival she has said to you, yes, the air of this world is worth breathing.
She who has
signed countless people up for the Omnicycle
will show
skill in signing you up for appointments, leagues, and practices, too. Your mother has known the demands of
schedule.
She knows
the benefits of including family in discussion.
That seeking assist is not to be discouraged, but rather is necessary. That just being present—just showing up—is
half the battle. She knows how to be
flexible, figure it out when she gets there.
She knows
how to gently arouse one sleeping and to put one back to bed.
She who
carries goals for you also knows that goals sometimes need to be adjusted.
We diagnose
the unique sounds people repeat, their strange and halting motions, the ways
their minds do not match the realities of the world. But we know that labels cannot capture the
wrinkles and swerves of this life.
What a rich environment
for you even now,
As you spend
eight hours a day in this place that speaks a refrain of:
We stumble
and we help. We transfer.
We make
gains. We stand by assist.
Although we
can’t fathom it, we understand that one day you, too, will become Independent,
and one day again, Dependent.
The hands
that will cradle you have served countless others in corners of their lives,
and responded to various darknesses of body and spirit. But to these bodies and spirits she has said,
get up. Get up, try again.
She is a
strong advocate.
She has
chosen a career that sometimes involves this:
Batting a
red balloon, watching it lift into the hair, hover for a moment as she meets eyes
with another human being, watches how that human being responds, receives the
red balloon back, herself responding in turn.
Your
mother’s patience has been stretched and grown.
Her mind
does not overlook the subtle worlds of the verbal, tactile, and gestural. She will know how to read you on so many
planes of existence.
She has
cleaned up human accidents seven times bigger and more toxic than any you could
produce.
She who has
attended many an unexpected
Care Plan
Meeting,
Cares and
Plans on Meeting you.
She brings
hope to this world that she knows, daily, will end in frustrations, in
discomforts, in limitations. Your
presence in her says, yes, despite
all this, yes. Life: it’s still worth being here for. She says, come, anyway, come, find brightness
in this world. Because who are we to
limit growth.
And seeing
your mothers in our midst, we know the promise and
presence of
life she carries in you, little one.
So, when
your discharge date arrives,
When they
call out your name,
Take comfort
that she will welcome you,
first in
line for the Nu Step
Into this
living, breathing world.
