Today is an occasion for you to share, in this space for caregivers, whatever is on your heart. Caregivers are often each others own best counselors.
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Journal of Sacred Work
Caregivers have superpowers! Radical Loving Care illuminates the divine truth that caregiving is not just a job. It is Sacred Work.
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7 responses to “Open Forum”
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My heart has been heavy this week as I experienced a difficult encounter in the form of an angry, rude, unkind, and insulting e-mail. I had no desire to enter into the exchange and responded back with a polite sort of “no thank-you.” The messages escalated with anger and rage leaving me speechless and at a loss as to how to respond, and hesitant to respond at all. A few days elapsed, as I waited for my answer and then I clearly understood, I needed to respond with Love. Hmnn…Love someone whose behavior was so seemingly ugly and unkind. I’ve heard is said, that the person before you offers the perfect gift; the lesson to be learned. All week this one thought has sustained me, my life is to short for anything less than Love.
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A quote I read this morning from Julia Cameron states, “Afraid to appear selfish, we lose our self.” As caregivers we run the risk of falling into what she calls the “Virtue Trap.” She goes on to say, “We strive to be good, to be nice, to be helpful, to be unselfish. We sant to be generous, of service of the world. But what we really want is to be left alone. When we can’t get others to leave us alone, we eventually abandon ourselves. To others, we may look like we’re there. We may act like we’re there. But our true self has gone to ground. What’s left is a shell of our whole self…”
I have struggled with this of late as the emotional demands of work along with the increasing busy-ness of my teenagers has drained my strength. I feel myself slipping under and am at risk of being swept away. So, on this exquisite fall day in Nashville, I start the morning with poetry and meditation. I lavish myself with a manicure, a Starbucks caffe mocha, a walk among the flowers, two pieces of REAL bacon and some hashbrowns. What a gift to my weary body and my thirsty soul. I’m beginning to feel myself again.LikeLike
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Good for you Karen! Your day sounds wonderful…and the wisdom that you shared helpful for the rest of us to consider. 🙂
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These comments are so helpful to me. Particualar in this time as I move my elderly parents to a condo from our family home. I have had this sense both of doom and some kind of frantic response to the chaos that this kind of move entails. Honestly, I’m scared at times about how this is going to work out – fear that is based on the unknown and declining health of my parents, I think. But also striving to trust and be present and to cultivate love. You all are a comfort to me. I wish sometimes it was not through cyberspace.
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Diana,
It seems to me this is a huge life change for your parents, as they transition to another phase of life and must let go of all that is familiar. I am glad to know that you are there for your parents, as blessing in a challenging times. Yes, cyberspace does have it’s limitations but I am thankful for these opportunities to connect and for your open heartfelt sharing. Thank you. ~lizLikeLike
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Thank you Liz for your kind words. It is a beautiful Saturday here in Tennessee. So much to be thankful for. Diana
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A new thread on this open forum for a divine Sunday morning…
I like this quote by Gandhi because it mirrors my own core belief.
“I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world. I believe that they are all God-given and I believe that they were necessary for the people to whom these religions were revealed. And I believe that if only we could all of us read the scriptures of the different faiths from the standpoints of the followers of these faiths, we should find that they were at bottom all one and were all helpful to one another.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Additionally, I would like to share this from my own faith tradition. I especially Love how Fr. Adams connects us to the deep spiritual truth of the story and how we may apply this wisdom in our own lives in a most meaningful and beautiful way.
First Joyous Mystery
The Annunciation
Mary said “I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me as you say.” Luke 1:38.
Thoughts from Fr. Michael Adams…
In the Gospel of Luke, when Mary received the news that she was to be the bearer of Christ, her first reaction was of surprise. Doubting the message, asking “Why me?” and “Really, Me?” are the expressions that she may have used when contemplating this extraordinary event. She must have felt such love from this understanding! When Mary accepted her condition, she surrendered to the will of the Divine. This reaction illustrates something important about our own relationship with our deepest being in God. When she understood that she carried divinity within her, she was changed in a fundamental way so that she could never really look at life, even common events, without making reference to the deepest values and depths of her being—a reflection of the joy she contained in her womb. In this way, we too react in much the same way when we are presented with the same kind of reality: that we are carrying divinity inside of our awareness, at the deepest level of our being. We too ask “Really, me?” and we too are given to remember that we have a relationship with that aspect of Christ in us, a relationship with the wholeness of life that is encompassed thereby. Like Mary, we are called to surrender to the Divine. Mary’s responsibility became different at that point: for in conceiving and nurturing the divinity within, her relationship to all of Life became her focus, her reason for living. For her, nurturance would give way to birth. Like Mary, it is our responsibility to feel within ourselves the divinity that both gives and seeks nurturance. This recognition begins with the question “Really, Me?”, and the growth process from nurturing to birth is the focus of this joyous Mystery as we say “let thy will be done.”
Fr. Michael Adams
Rosaries of Divine Union
Third Edition
Copyright © 2001, Fr. Michael Adams and Rosaries of Divine UnionLikeLike
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