Kate Bowler hosts the “Everything Happens” podcast, and has also written a book of “blessings”. I can’t remember how I stumbled across this one, but I did, at a time when I was in the depths of carer’s burnout. It resonated with me more than almost anything else I’d read before (or since!) about how hard that time was.
Here’s how it starts:
Blessed are we
for whom the call to loving action is still strong,
whose every urge is to keep going, keep working,
and not to count the cost.And yet blessed are we,
beginning to notice that we are slowing down, inexplicably,
or just pausing, staring for no reason,
or starting something,
but then quickly turning to another demand.Blessed are we,
Excerpt from “A Blessing for Caregivers” by Kate Bowler
realizing that we are beginning to lose the thread.
(I feel like the prayer “Come and be the wisdom to find the support system that is broad enough, kind enough, effective enough to meet the needs that are here – both mine and theirs” has been answered over the last couple of years.)