A Hospice Chaplain's Field Guide to Caregiving
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RE: renewable caring

For those who show up...however they can for love

…caregiving of yourself and your others …and the world

to be better gardeners of our ONE WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE….

Love is Renewable.

2/14/2022

1 Comment

 
Yesterday I had this beautiful visit with a patient and her adoring adult child who had been taking care for years and before that taking care of another ... also for years.

​This serial caregiver was exhausted, overwhelmed and moving toward burnout.

I got it...because I was it. She was on the tipping point into resentment from simply being willing. Our conversation eased her off the ledge because her feelings were reasonable and common ... but they were new to her. They were troubling because love isn't suppose to feel that way but overwhelm always feels that way.

Love is up to the job...

Love is up to the job...it is renewable. After a nap or a good night's sleep...or a conversation with the infirmed loved one, like we had that day, we may open up again to the renewability of it all – to the deep well of sustainability that powers goodness in the world. 

Out of a gentle nudging from me, the patient started speaking about her life, her good man who had died, her milestones. She had a crack sense of humor and a light in her that surpassed her (almost) hundred years of wrinkles. 

Then she came up with this...and I share it with you today:

​
And she said,
"I've been lucky.
​I loved that which loved me back."

​From the mouth of lived wisdom: love renews us.  
If it's not renewable (on the whole)...it's something else.


May you be surprised by love that loves you back.
Happy Valentine's Day 2022.  


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1 Comment
Mary Ann Ivica
2/25/2022 11:50:29 pm

Rev Eleezabeth , How pleased I was to see a current newsletter in the Shelter in Grace meditation, I continued to do one Sound Meditation each evening and hadn't seen any for 2022, are there more and how may I find them?
Like your patient
I too was lucky, I too loved that which loved me back.

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    EM Hager
    Author, Bereavement & Spiritual care, Sound meditation guide.

    "Look deeply into nature and you will understand everything human"
               – Albert Einstein

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