Caregiver's Dilemma
What every caregiver needs: recognition and respite.
The unconditional love for parent, grandparent, sibling, child
The yearning to heal our loved one
Memories of joy and sadness fluctuating from moment to moment.
Sacrificing our desires to care for our loved ones.
Easy, at first, with the support from friends, acquaintances, colleagues.
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Time goes by; months turn into years – five, ten, twenty begins to feel like a lifetime.
We do our best to show love to Self and those around us
Inner thoughts echo – ‘I’m tired, exhausted. Jealous of others. Anger rattles the bones.’
Guilt rains down from the head and rests in the heart.
The caregiver Delima - I’ll put my life on hold…Can I do both?
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Establish Boundaries! The Voice thunders over the mountain tops.
Find time to go on vacation, gardening, exercise, take a spa day
Find time to sit undisturbed, laughter around the dinner table
Find a community to support caregivers and our loved ones in need.
The heat bounds - that is the relief I need to go another day.
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Today, I will see how my loved one is doing. A phone call, a visit
Thankful that I reached out - as I received their smiles of love,
a touch, a word of encouragement as we reminisce and plan for the future.
Unconditional love shines its light. Giving and receiving is now a delight
What every caregiver needs: recognition and respite.
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The Caregiver's dilemma the resilience to do it tomorrow,
and appreciating your loved ones as they are today.
To embrace the ebb and flow of emotions, unattached by
breathing life back into the soul. One more day to care for Self;
to love more fully, to shine the light on those we love.
About the Creator
Kristine Milewski
Writing is a way to recreate how I interpret the world through my eyes and capture positivity and resilience in the face of others' perceptions.
I appreciate your taking the time to read my stories!
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More stories from Kristine Milewski and writers in Poets and other communities.
Second Tuesday of November
No one knew how the event really started. Between a few beverages at the bar, maybe? Notes passed carefully on the street? Or, perhaps a secret meetup at early hours of the day? Whatever the root source was, we were here now on the second Tuesday of November. Nervous, but also absorbed by the allure.
By Elizabeth Petit3 days ago in Fiction
Comments (15)
Brilliantly written!!! Congratulations on the Leaderboard win!!!💕❤️❤️
This is wonderful, and incredibly relatable. Congrats on the TS.
☺️👏Excellent reflection and poem. Very well done Kristine. Congrats on your leaderboard placement too!!
A caregiver is a small label to place on an entire life. Your poem brings dimension back to the experience
Yes - well said & thank you.:)
This is a great story. I enjoyed this story. If you want to read my story then visit this link https://vocal.media/humans/a-symphony-of-hearts-and-hopes
congrats
Congrats!
Perfectly said. I know from my own families experience how difficult a caregivers life can be, Congrats on Top Story
It's tough to be a caregiver and I think you capture the balance that is so difficult to find but which is needed to do such an emotive job. It's always the guilt, I think that becomes a focus and the self-care that gets forgotten. But without taking care of ourselves, how can we give it to others?
Great ideas
Great job! Keep up the fantastic work—congratulations! Kristine Milewski
I was a caregiver t my husband whom had a brain injury then dementia, he passed away July 15th of this year and its the most difficultest job in the world I agree
Congrats on the top story and well done for so eloquently bringing a spot light to such a difficult job
Very beautifully put. I was a caregiver to my parents, and you wrote this exactly to how I felt.