Sunday, October 30, 2011

Pledge of Peace and Love ~ Day 16

I’m a little behind on the blog! Weekends it seems are more difficult to keep up with. I would think it would actually be easier on the weekend with more free time but it turns out free time is hard to come by!

I don’t want to skip yesterday though. I had the opportunity yesterday to listen to an interview with two friends on an internet radio station. The interview was about providing caregiving for their Mother and their son, but really their story is about amazing lessons in love, love of family and love of self.

They taught me so much in one hour. I was so grateful to them for sharing their wisdom and their hearts. Not only did they learn a great deal about the process of caregiving but also about themselves. They shared from a genuine desire to help others through their own lessons learned. I am not in a position of having to be a caregiver in the way that they were and are, yet there was much for me to learn from their experiences.

They spoke about navigating the health care system, which while sometimes challenging, they proved can still be handled with grace. They didn’t seem to let obstacles stop them; they simply saw them as challenges to be overcome, not as dead ends. They didn’t see people in the system as enemies but as allies, who if they could find the right questions to ask, would help them achieve their goals. They didn’t see conversations with family about caregiving as conflict; they saw it as opportunities for the family to have open communication so that they would all understand each other, rather than make assumptions about where the others were in their thinking. They loved and honored themselves enough to know that they had to express the limits they knew they had, in order to be present and not drained for the caregiving they wanted to be able to provide. And inspiringly they were able to move through the life changing accident their son was involved in that left him in a wheelchair, with hope and positivity and come through it seeing good that came from the process. I’m certain there were dark moments and days but that is not where they chose to dwell.

They are an incredible example to me of living from peace and love. I’m grateful to know them and to have their example as an inspiration. Thank you Kit and Randy.

If you would like to listen to their interview it is at http://archives.zeusradio.com/here-women-talk/rivers-of-faith-donna-tyson/rivers-of-faith-10-18-2011/ .

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