NEWS

My wife and I recently celebrated an important milestone: our 15th wedding anniversary. We had a great time looking back at the past 15 years and the memories we’ve created together.

However, it’s important to remember that an anniversary like this isn’t an ending, and it isn’t really about the past. It’s about the present and the future. It’s a re-commitment, or even a re-invention. My wife and I have each changed in different ways over the course of our marriage, and as our needs, abilities, strengths and weaknesses change, our commitment to each other means that we adapt to those changes and renew our understanding of how we live out our marriage in daily life.

Our 100 year anniversary at Milwaukee Catholic Home is like that too.

In the world of senior services, you hear a lot about whole person wellness – in fact, you hear about it so much that it sometimes seems like it’s lost its meaning. Lots of organizations like ours have developed elaborate systems and special names for their wellness programs, but what’s important about this idea can sometimes get lost in the shuffle. Wellness for me has often been the token visit to the gym once or twice a month. Feeling empowered and almost super human for a brief moment, thoughts run wild in my mind that I may now be able to win the upcoming 5K in my age division!

However, like in the old story about the tortoise and the hare, winning at wellness is less about sprinting to the finish line and more about slow, steady progress. Real wellness takes commitment and perseverance, but ultimately has even greater rewards.