Lately I crave visits with my mother—a challenge that takes all my attention and therefore serves as an antidote to the news.

Every day at home, I check and compare news outlet to try to make sense of what's happening. On my phone, I scroll the Nytimes morning and evening briefings, which I didn't know existed before this election cycle. I check NBC, CNN, the Washington Post, even Fox News. It's an obsession. It gets me down. I can't stop.

Except when I visit my mother.

Mom knows what’s up, and worries about her grandkids’ future under the upcoming administration, but what consumes her most is daily life. All day long, she seeks out smooth, round metal railings—on the edge of her bed, on the ramp to the pool, on the shower walls. She grasps them to sit, to stand, to lie in bed. Every action must be considered: turning a certain corner is tricky for her wheelchair; this bar is too skinny, too low, just right.

When I am able to help her, it’s gratifying. Walking is a big deal if your knees buckle and your feet are stiff, but Mom is willing, so I attach a wide cotton belt around her waist and grasp it from the back so she won’t fall, a tip I learned from the physical therapist. “Big steps,” I say, like the therapist does—and Mom complies.

I used to hurry things along, but now, in her room, I pivot her wheelchair this way and that, so she and I can find her missing sock together, three minutes I'm not checking my news feeds; so she can drop her earrings by herself into the ice cube tray in the bedside table drawer, two minutes I'm not thinking about Kellyanne Conway's incessant grin; so she can squeeze the toothpaste onto her toothbrush before I brush her teeth, a good six minutes I'm thinking only of her long, elegant fingers, and how well they used to play piano.

There’s no hurry. And this knowledge is stultifying or freeing depending on how rested I am. Any pleasure or adventure we eek out in the midst of her current limitations is found in these tiny conquests of daily living. And for a brief time, I'm not worried about the future, I'm just taking care of the present.