Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
With respect to keeping the privacy of loved ones, this is a list of some lessons I learned, or at least was reminded of this past weekend:
+ You don’t have to go it alone. People are mostly kind and merciful and want to help you. Let them in. Let love in.
+ Don’t be quick to judge the crazy lady, in the pikachu hat, who repeats herself constantly in your local eatery. She may just be a beautiful, creative person who has early dementia and is worried about her spouse, who is the love of her life. She has people who care about her and animals whom she deeply loves. And she’s not homeless. She’s probably wealthier than you. She actually has three homes, and is a multimillionaire.
+ Your body is like Shel Silverstein’s Giving Tree. It will do everything that it can to keep giving and giving and giving to you, no matter how you treat it, but eventually it will have nothing left to give. Treat your body with respect and care. Don’t treat it with disregard. It is the vehicle that allows you to live life. Without it, nothing else really matters. You will not be able to live a full, free life without a healthy body. All of your accolades, all of your accomplishments, all of your dreams, all of your wealth and possessions mean nothing without a healthy body. Health is your ultimate wealth.
+ People in the medical fields are an astonishing mix of deep compassion and scientifical stoicism. They are a special breed and they are doing their best every single day. And their “best” is typically a lot better than the rest of our “best.” Treat them with gratitude and appreciation. It goes a long way.
+ You never regret being there for people. But you must also show up for yourself. It’s an airline mask cliche (put your mask on first) but it is so true, you cannot take care of others, unless you take care of yourself first. Caretaking is strenuous, stressful, emotional and physical work and it will break you down, if you aren’t careful. Make sure that when you consider how to take care of others, you put yourself into that equation.
+ Never, ever give up hope. Losing is going to hurt whether you hoped or not. So keep hoping. When there is life, there is hope.
Kelly,
Great blog today!
So much I would love to add to what you wrote. I am in agreement with all of them, and I could write a paragraph or more on each one.
But, I will save you my comments and just say, great lessons to learn and to revisit.
Life is just a wonderful myriad of emotions, highs & lows, and its the stuff in the middle of it all that we live day-to-day. As crazy and frazzled as life is for me, right now. I know that it is temporary and that things will change again. I am looking forward to the days when I will look back at this all, and think I did the best I could. And I am sure I will have learned another of life’s great lessons or two.
Life is wonderful!
So much to learn and pass along!
Thank you for your lessons!
Thank you, Joan. <3