Patience Persistence Presence and Passion

"You've always had the power my dear, you just had to learn it for yourself." Glinda the good witch Did you go through a tough time of caring for someone to find out that they became a very good friend? This is something that we get when we are committed to the call to care. This is what you call real relationships which usually have the opportunity to include friction, adversity and challenge. The best of relationships are those which have stood the test of opposition and challenge. Some may think that having a challenging patient is just not the right person for you but it may be the very person to help you to understand how to care for a difficult person. Caring for a difficult person may lead the care giver to tap into the real gift within to enjoy the gift that they were meant to be. Reaching into your own personhood to care for your patient is not something that most people want to do. reaching in to see yourself is not always a pretty sight. In fact, when looking a character identifications learning about your strengths also carries along with it the pain of facing your own weaknesses. No challenge to your inner person brings no deep reflection to what moves you which results in your ability to fly on auto-pilot. Adapting to the frailties of our own psyche is what we do to make it from one day to the next. Facing the challenge of a difficult patient makes us dig deep enough to see what changes need to be made in our own character in order for the gift inside to make more of a difference. Hard to believe? Just think of it, the athlete, who has the gift of speed, endurance and flexibility still needs to push him or herself in order to become more of what they already are. This is true for any gift inside a person who wants more from their inner person. The word from Glinda the Good is wise instruction for anyone who desires to be fully able and efficient to perform what they believe they have been gifted to do. Facing the challenge helps you to be more. Don't leave that client, dig deep within for the person who you are made to be. Go beyond what you are capable of adapting to, pour your energy into being what you can be and doing what you can do. Dare to be better than you are to become more of what you can be. "You've always had the power to do this my friend, you just had to learn it for yourself."

The Logic of Broken Hearts

"Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable." The Tin Man: 'The Wizard of Oz' Sometimes I speak with care givers who do not want to "get too close" to their patients. I see this as a waste of presence and a missed opportunity for really caring for the person who needs to be affirmed while having to cope with the humility of having someone else care for them. If a care giver allows their emotions to enter into the picture of care, they will find that they will get more of a blessing than they could give. During the course of my own encounters with patients I have found that I will resonate better with some than with others. This is nobody's fault. Some patients I have found that they do not relate to me in the way that I would like, and I soon remember that love is a commitment not a feeling. The Love that I share for a person while caring for them helps me to be aware of their situation of pain, or suffering even their grief. I need to be able to resonate with their pain in order to walk with them on the journey of sorrow. The reluctant care giver, desiring to keep from feeling the pain of the patient, will have trouble resonating with them. I am not talking about making up your own issues of sorrow in order to cry with them but reflecting on their sorrow allowing it to touch your sorrow is best. This kind of care will cause your soul to hurt and invite the pain of grief to enter in. A person who is suffering can somehow feel that you are just using words while attending to them but a person who sees that you care enough to enter into their suffering will receive the offering of true care giving. It is said that misery loves company and I do believe this is true. This saying is usually referred to when a person is having a tough time in life they want to pull everyone down who will let them. But there is another side to this. A person who is in misery needs someone who is willing to sit in the misery with them, find a glimmer of hope in the middle of hopelessness. To be able to see if there is something to grasp in the midst of suffering. The depth of the life lost, the strength of the character of the hurting, the assurance of a faithful family... These aspects of life and relationship are worth more that anyone can say at the moment. Assumptions, third party feelings, virtually stepping out of the room to detour the issue are all errors in caring for a person who is suffering. You, as the care giver must be in the room physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. You are the one who has walked this journey with the patient and it is you that they expect to lean on as they go through. Many times silence is golden the urge to give direction, lessons or even show something to the patient is like walking on thin ice in the relationship. The lesson of the Tin man is that what is felt is not always of a practical nature. The task is to feel what they feel as best as you can and be of support to them, then you will have offered yourself as a real person to minister to another human being. Some care givers give care as if they would like their heart to be unbreakable but this would defeat the purpose of the intimacy of care. Allowing your heart to break for the person to whom you are showing love is a key task in care giving. This is the logic of broken hearts.

A Look at Dunaway Gardens

Famous Quotes from the Wizard of Oz