Good Morning, Sweet Friends!
The caregiver is an unsung hero who spends their daily caloric intake, (often interrupted, cold, and quick) to nourish another, who is unable to care for themselves. Next, they recycle their energy into enough sustainable force to care for their families and homes. They appear to strangers as derelicts, half asleep, on-the-run, in yesterday's clothes, and talking to themselves. Their immediate family has been on the back burner for so long that they've learned to live there. The caregiver prays for just a day to close themselves off, turn off the phone, and hide. Yet they can't. Even if they had the time, they wouldn't take it. Love, guilt, personal integrity, need, fear, they all push them to continue...
I was a caregiver. I never realized how exhausted I was until my shift was over. Would it sound strange to say that after four years, I'm getting rest?
For some, being a caregiver happens because they live the closest to the one in need. Others become caregivers because they were an only child or because they are a spouse. Still others have become caregivers by profession or calling. Planned, or unplanned, care giving is an enormous responsibility and weight.
Care giving is rewarding. It is gratifying to give all that we have to another. It is a gift of time. It is a gift from the Lord. It is redeeming. It can cancel debt, renew relationships, share secrets and dreams, and teach us who we really are or who we want to become.
Today I'd like to share a website with my readers called, The Ribbon.com.
It is caregiver poetry. My very special aunt shared it with me when I was a caregiver. The piece titled, Letting Go became an anthem of mine, of sorts.
One of my favorite selections is called, To My Children.
If I tell the story one more time,
And you know the ending through and through,
Please remember your first nursery rhyme
When I rehearsed it a hundred times with you.
Caregivers need care. Please join me today in praying for, administering help to, and loving a caregiver. If you are a caregiver, please read The Ribbon. There is a community of other people in your position that can encourage you.
With love,
Alis
P.S.
I love you.
Actually, yes, I do take time for myself when I can. I first learned this lesson when my MIL lived with us for the last six of her eight years. She passed away at 95.6 years. Now, my husband has terminal cancer and I make a point to take a half day for myself each week, although, the most horrific, to date, is passed. We're now in a rainbow setting, living a new normal but knowing things could change...for either of us...at any moment.
ReplyDeleteWhen he was first diagnosed, I lived with the guilt others tried, successfully, to heap upon me. I should be there for him, do everything for him, put myself last...if at all. That's insanity and a very quick way to total burn out; if I fall, who takes care of him? So, I learned to do small things for myself in order to keep myself going.
Dave has cancer but I have everything else and it's just as well there will be stars in my crown because now all I can feel is weariness and exhaustion.