With Mayo Clinic health education outreach coordinator Angela Lunde

This week, I spent many hours with caregivers, mostly listening. I'm now feeling a bit tired and melancholy, yet humbled and grateful for these conversations. Although I have been doing this "work" now for many years, these are the interactions that emulate for me the most basic and necessary of human experiences — being completely present for someone when they need it most. When I can be completely present for someone else, I feel both blessed and whole.

In my desk drawer, I keep a notebook of meaningful or inspirational thoughts I want to remember. This week, I was struck again by these two paragraphs written by Beth Witrogen McLeod from her book, "Caregiving: The Spiritual Journey of Love, Loss and Renewal":

"Doomsayers would preach that rage, greed and resignations have overtaken the world. I believe that if you look into the private rooms of caregiving families, you will find the true nature of things as they are, beneath the veneer of social conditioning and confusion, stereotype and illusion. There you will find great kindness and devotion, a trust of life that surpasses doubt or pain. There you will find the highest expression of who we are.

"If we close our hearts to suffering, we cannot open them to love. Every benevolent act counts. By surviving difficulties and holding on to goodness, caregivers inspire others to summon the power of the spirit. Humanity can evolve from its violence and recklessness into an enlightened age of caring when the lessons of loss are honored, exemplified by modern-day heroes who fulfill the age-old mandate: to give."

Add to del.icio.us Digg This Add to Technorati Stumble It!

ARTICLE TOOLS

Latest entries