While the summer blooms are fading, we still may find glimpses of late bloomers. We may see blooms, such as this hydrangea, that stand in proud color and beauty, ignorant (or simply not caring) that it is October.
As these flowers are replaced with more of the typical autumn blooms, such as mums, may we see the beauty of as one season passes the baton to another.
When we think of a year living in the fullness of all its beauty and goodness, we understand that it is a relay between the four seasons. Each season blending into the next, letting go for now, allows us to enjoy the various celebrations, holidays, and even the changes in the weather outside our window. As care partners, we too must find freedom in passing the baton in care.
Professional or Family, we cannot do this alone. I know I am repeating something we all know, something we have heard a thousand times. Sadly, I am seeing an increasing number of individuals and families trying to go it alone. For various reasons, money, fear of another COVID lockdown, and the inability to see and hug loved ones who are in a care community, worrying about the thoughts and judgments of others. For these reasons we build up walls around us, we tell ourselves that we are strong enough to do this ourselves. We may be strong enough, but does that mean we have to be?
Over the course of this month, find places where you are weary, where you wish someone would help you, where your life’s quality would increase tenfold if you had another heart to walk with you.
Think about the people you know, and ask one person (no matter how well you may know them – only how much you trust them) and invite them into your life in a new and greater way. This person could simply be the person you ask to pick up your dry-cleaning or drop off something at the post office. You could ask them to stop by for lunch once a month to help you prepare lunch and break bread with you. Or they could be someone you hire to help lift the daily care loads.
If you are a professional care partner, you need someone too! Have a friend meet you for coffee, or lunch every week or stop by for dinner every so often. Create a text chain where you send each other voice memos or short video clips checking in every day or week.
It is in the simple, the mundane, the ordinary ways in which we allow ourselves to be loved, cared for, and assisted that we find ourselves starting to live a life fully alive.
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