Caregiving is too often about getting back up. Physically or mentally the person you’re helping can be overwhelmed by their illness. As caregiver you have that plus the bigger picture. It can knock you down.
Mowing the lawn yesterday in anticipation of Jeanne dropping a couple inches of rain on the area today I couldn’t help notice a patch of weeds in the field adjacent to our yard. Throughout the summer I’ve made preemptive strikes against them even though they have not invaded my lawn. I’ve mowed them to a nub, and used levels of chemical warfare that would have pleased an Iraqi mad man. Yet they ALWAYS come back.
It’s funny how our Hallmark metaphors for resiliency and persistence are always such glorious creatures or natural wonders. Yet the good ol’ WEED may actually be the most appropriate.
I humbly enclose this digital bouquet of weeds for all caregivers and others who just keep getting back up again. Not exactly the “wind beneath my wings” but the ever resilient “weeds beneath my sole” <grin>
enjoyed the bouquet......sometimes we feel the energy is slowly drained out of us into the patient.....and somewhere we have to find more. This is a 2:48 posting since my hubby had trouble breathing when he laid down after the medication and snack break at 1 this morning. Of course he is still awake, I have a 7:30 appointment to get my car serviced and the brakes????whatever is wrong with them. If I lay down I will over sleep soooooooooo I guess I am awake for the good part of this day. Take care of yourself that is what they tell us, "smiles" but they have to walk in our shoes to understand sometimes it isn't easy to take care of ourselves when our patient needs so much. Remember the toys they had..think it was a clown that you could punch and it would bounce right back, kids loved them, I feel like that clown often. cf
ReplyDelete“If I lay down I will over sleep soooooooooo…” Ohh, don’t I know that feeling. I even have three alarm clocks, positioned in three different locations so I am forced to have to get up to deal with them. One electric, one battery, and one wind up simply because I can’t afford to trust electricity in case of a power failure. I set them even if I lay down for a couple minutes just in case <grin>
ReplyDeletePatrick