Lead with Love and Crossed Fingers

As I have been known to say on more than a few occasions, “this year we are all caregivers.” To put it another way— these past two plus years, the separation between people who are actively caring for loved ones and those who are not yet doing so, is much less defined than ever.

Now, even almost three years into this pandemic, it is not just caregivers whose lives have been swiftly upended with no reasonable end in sight. Now, this virus has made all our relationships with loved ones either better or more fragile. Now, we all are regularly thinking of the health and well-being of our loved ones. Now, the health of our local healthcare system is something that is concerning to all, as it is not when everyone is well.

I think this is an important teaching opportunity for family caregivers.  We can help our friends, neighbors and family members through the type of fear and uncertainty that we caregivers face daily.

• We can show our friends, neighbors and family members what it means to try and be prepared for any healthcare outcome.   
• We can help teach our friends, neighbors and family members the importance of interacting with others in times of duress. 
• We caregivers and carers have long known the value of two sets of three words to get us through the tough times.

When talking with your loved ones do not forget to say I Love You as often as possible, and when encountering roadblocks when dealing with the system (financial, healthcare, government, insurance) remember the indispensable three words are, Who’s your supervisor?

There are so very many things that are shared by all peoples in all nations around the globe, regardless if they are considered friend or foe by the nation in which you live. The extraordinarily thin layer of ozone which separates us from the blackness of space, love of our friends and family members, a good laugh, hugs and even the global ecology which we all share. And in regular times, these shared elements of humanity are not recognized.  There are precious few times that we can see ourselves as all hurtling together in this Spaceship Earth and this, is for better or worse, one of these times. 

And as any caregiver can tell our friends, neighbors and family in these days in which we find ourselves, the best thing we can do is lead with love. And fingers crossed, this pandemic is quickly becoming a thing for the history books.

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