I was fortunate to attend a wonderful seminar this morning at Canterbury United Methodist Church in Birmingham. The speaker was Jolene Brackey and the topics was Creating Moments of Joy Along the Alzheimer’s Journey. (This is also the name of her book so run out and get a copy!)
Jolene was delightful and I know that I left the seminar better than I was when I arrived. She offered a lot of information that I was already familiar with but it was given to me in a fresh new way. It was delivered with laughter and sympathy and kindness. I got the feeling that she had walked in my shoes or at the very least she was walking with me in this journey.
John Claypool, the former rector of my church, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, loved to preach on grace. Through his many sermons we were reminded of the free and unlimited favor of God, also known as grace.
God gives us grace every day. He forgives us for our sins and reminds us that we can never lose favor with Him. His favor is eternal.
Jolene Brackey told a room full of caregivers to give ourselves grace. We deserve it and we have certainly earned it over and over again. We need to give ourselves grace to pass thru the moment.
And if you are a caregiver, you know the moments I am referring to.
It is OK to take a break, both mentally and physically. As one person said today, put yourself in “timeout.” Use a timeout to breathe and regroup. Count to 10 or 100 or whatever you have to do to take a break from the situation at hand.
Give yourself grace.
Being a caregiver is hard. As I have said many times, I am a caregiver from afar. I do not live with my father and I am so lucky that we have kind sitters that help my parents every day. But I get the phone calls. I see the lapse in memories and I experience the loss of my father every day.
So when I am spent and I have had enough, I need to give myself grace. It is OK to be done! It is OK to put yourself in timeout for a little bit.
Give yourself grace to pass thru the moment. You won’t regret it.
Read the book Creating Moments of Joy Along the Alzheimer’s Journey. You won’t regret that either.
myparentchildren 