- Terry BallantyneA Few Words About Assisted LivingNovember 18, 2017This is my personal experience, but one that I hear from others is sadly all too common. Choose assisted living, particularly memory care, very carefully. If your parent is healthy and thriving and just needs help with housework or managing medications, assisted living may be appropriate. ADLs (activities of daily living , and IADLs, Instrumental acitivites of daily living , are the skills needed to live independently -- dressing, shopping, cooking, doing laundry, managing a phone. When wrists are bad, or knees are weak, these simple tasks...
- Terry BallantyneA private cozy feelingNovember 15, 2017Rick Warren wrote about " A purpose driven life" long before social media tore the world to shreds. Yet purpose is more important now than ever before. When a child's world consisted of extended family, a modest home, a neighborhood of people talked or even bar-b -qued together, the problems of the neighboring state was far away, and the problems of other countries were distant ideas. Growing up meant a family vacation or fishing with Uncle Ned. It meant Christmas at Gramma's house or your favorite...
- Terry BallantyneWhy we cling to our stuff!October 25, 2017You know who you are. You have a drawer, a closet, a garage, a storage locker full of stuff you 'really need". Or stuff that has a memory attached. Stuff you will never ever retrieve or use and the cost of that storage both financially and psychologically is expensive. How could that space be better used? How bad does it feel to open a jammed closet and feel your self respect plummet? How long ago did you actually take something out of storage? Could you...
- Terry BallantyneSurrogate GoalsSeptember 16, 2017I worry that there is a pervasive and wicked sickness threading silently through our society. I believe it may be born of having too many choices and not enough threat to our physical existence so that we are focused always on minutia. "I don't like this or that," "he/she was rude to me, " "how dare they do that". Such righteous indignation over minor infractions or slights. When suddenly Irma swooped in, all of that was off the table and our best instincts surfaced...
- Terry BallantyneQuality CountsAugust 19, 2017How does quality come to be? I took a coffee cup out of the cupboard this morning and noticed the glaze was white and bright, the weight was perfect, the handle easy to grip. It was from Darwin's birthplace in England, and I bought it as an homage to science. I felt it needed my support right now! I thought about this cup compared to others I have purchased on my travels. Others that were thin , the glaze crackled, or prone to stain, the...
- Terry BallantyneThe Sound Of a FanAugust 11, 2017It's been 5 months now since my mom passed. Sometimes it feels like ages ago, and some days I forget that she is gone and I sense her spirit nearby. Loss is such a strange thing. It lives somewhere in a corridor between the head and the heart, it travels up and down like a tourist in both places registering thoughts and feelings that sneak up on you like someone asking for directions. Somedays I feel like I didn't know her at all and other...
- Terry BallantyneFrom a friendJuly 22, 2017From a friend: I never thought I would have any trouble grieving a great loss because as a kid, I often felt betrayed by how readily tears came. Moments of feeling exposed and tender seemed like a major handicap in a world where appearing 'better than' was somehow a win. But then, when everything fell apart, I think the ability to live in denial for a time, though costly itself, also saved my life. Even as I became an abyss (relative to the radical contact...
- Tom BrezsnyHe’s the Most Interesting Realtor in the World…July 13, 2017I don’t know how many of you noticed...Dos Equis beer recently retired Jonathan Goldsmith, the American actor who became famous for his role as The World’s Most Interesting Man in the World. The ads became memes of their own and spawned a flood of internet take-offs. Goldsmith’s character was replaced by a new, younger, most interesting man intended to appeal to the next generation of millennial beer drinkers. Unfortunately this new Most Interesting Man doesn’t quite live up to the original. Good news though, Goldsmith...
- Tom BrezsnyOwn Your Own Process FirstJuly 13, 2017What do most Buyers facing a multiple-offer situation on a house really want to know? Simple: “What’s the least possible amount I can offer and still stand a snowball’s chance of getting the home?” Some of the rationale in their heads sounds like this: “ I don’t want to pay any more than I have to. I know I can’t offer too little or I’ll get creamed. But if I offer too much, how will I ever know? What if the Seller accepts my offer...
- Terry Ballantyne
- Terry Ballantyne
