Caregiver's Alphabet

2007 Caregivers Alphabet for August
-– for those who have gone beyond burnout & are just slowly twisting in the wind…

Awareness – look for those red flags that say “stop, you’re about to go over the edge.”

Benediction  – something good to say, every day

Chronic compassion -- isn’t love, it’s pride. Give it up, all right? 

Despair – the flip side of pride. Where you end up, after trying to go it alone.

Ego – that instinctive push to do it all by yourself, to prove you’re god.

Friends – people who come back to help, even when you say “no thanks.”

God -- omniscient, omnipotent, the big guy – who to turn to when life hands you something too big to handle on your own.

Honesty – what do I really need, right now? What makes me feel most like me?

Interdependence – not independence. We need each other.

Juice – keep life flowing in you and around you. Hydrate, not just with water, but with life.

Love - Loving others as yourself – finding something to love in every person.

Monsters – pain from childhood, people who put you down

No – come on, you can say it. Try.

Offering – when pain is too much to bear, offer it up. It helps. But be aware of times when you need to fix the problem. Don’t offer up everything.

Pride – also known as “little red hen syndrome.” Give it up!

Quiet time – good time to do some breathing exercises, meditate, curl up with a good book, find some stillness in your day. Be still and know that He is God.

Rest – get enough of this, so you don’t spend quiet time sleeping. You need both.

Sanity – five minutes a day, doing something that keeps you sane. See honesty, above.

Trials – Okay, you’ve got some. Accept that into each life, some must fall. Deal.

Unchanging – God’s love for you

Vision – where are you going? Make a plan, set some goals, now.

Whoopla – look it up; it’s in Webster’s. it means “boisterous merrymaking,” When’s the last time you made merry with some friends? Take a break!

X-Ray Diffraction reveals the structure of a crystal by scattering it. Try a little diffraction in your day. Get out of the routine to see where and who you are.

Year of Grace – what Christians call any year after Christ was born. Imagine giving yourself a year of grace. Every morning, start anew as God’s gift of grace to the rest of us. That’s who you truly are!

Zeptosecond – one sextillionth of a second. That’s how much time you should spend worrying. Let go!