Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

The last line of T.S. Eliot's poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is: Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

I use this as the title of this entry for several reasons. This poem has inspired me since my adolescence. When I first read Eliot, I felt he was saying what I would say once I found my own poetic voice. The poem was a source of inspiration and frustration to me. Inspiration because it spoke to a part of me that was terribly lonely and afraid but an inspiration because it spoke so beautifully, so lyrically about how those feelings connected us to one another. I'll write more about the poem in future posts.

Composing my first blog entry is nerve wracking, to say the least. It’s something I’ve avoided until now—probably for all the usual reasons any of us avoid exposing our inner lives to others—insecurity, anxiety about the unknown, fear of judgment—and because I consider myself a private person. Despite those reservations, here I go:

I'll start with a word about me:

I am a clinical social worker who loves to process emotion, thought and experience through dialogue. And yet I’ve told myself writing a blog is impossible. I’ve always written poetry, rarely prose. (I say—only somewhat jokingly—that I write poetry because that’s all the sustained attention I can muster—anything longer than twenty lines becomes unwieldy.) But the dilemma—and there is a dilemma here—is that I do in fact have something to say that I believe could help others.

I plan to write candidly about caring for older adults because it is something important to me professionally and personally and because I believe having such an honest and open dialogue can offer insights that will benefit other caregivers and other professionals. I hope to be challenged by the task as well as by your comments. I also hope to offer solace to those feeling lonely and afraid by sharing my own loneliness and fear.

But this is only a part of what I hope for. The other, and equally important hope I have is to celebrate the role of caregiver and share the joy and serenity that comes from loving and caring for our elders.