We All Deserve Peace
We endure so many challenges during our caregiving experience. Then, we endure what’s happening in our communities and our country.
During our caregiving day, we can feel like we’re watching CNN and its chyron, which constantly streams the bad news.
It’s worse, though, because we’re not just watching it. We’re living it. We’re living our caree’s declines, the fragmented health care system, the lack of quality, affordable help, the stress and strain on the family system, the depleting bank account, the worries that we’re just not doing enough.
It’s hard enough to live that life of bad news in our homes. In today’s world, though, the bad news seems everywhere. A few weeks ago, I returned from my walk to my local grocery store (a walk I love to take) to a terrible road rage incident between two women drivers. I turned the corner and there it was: Two women yelling, swearing and filming each other. I’m still unsettled by it.
There’s war, mass shootings, rising COVID numbers and warnings about a hot summer, hurricanes and wildfires. We can take a break from staying up-to-date but we have to be up-to-date. We need to know what’s happening in the world so we can make plans in our world of caregiving. We need to be prepared for what could happen so that we’re ready. If we’re not ready with plans and supplies, we’re jeopardizing our caree’s safety.
It’s too much.
No wonder we are just horribly, unimaginably beaten down. We need relief. We need relief from our caregiving responsibilities and from this world which feels so broken.
Several years ago, I created a campaign to focus on creating safe neighborhoods so that all family caregivers lived in a neighborhood free of violence. I couldn’t get much traction then, unfortunately, so perhaps the timing is better for us right now. Navigating a caregiving experience can be such a nightmare. I can’t imagine the horror of navigating the experience while also trying to figure out how to keep your family safe.
We all deserve to be okay today and tomorrow. We all deserve to have peaceful moments during our day.
How are you managing? Please tell us how you’re doing in the comments section, below.
(Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay.)