CAREGIVER DIARIES: WAKING THOUGHTS

You don't have to answer someone's pettiness with a new and improved version of your own. 

We all have another, seedy, vengeful side that's always itching to come out and terrorize the playground, but we don't have to let it out of the classroom. 

It's not even about being the bigger person, it's about maintaining your own health and well-being. 

Let others be petty and small. Choose the high road. Keep doing what you've been doing-- not because you have to--but because it's right.

Many are so consumed with mourning who is not on the job, that they mistreat those who are.

Sometimes you have to remind others who you are NOT. What you are, however is present, accounted for, committed, concerned, consistent, and doing your very best. 

If others would prefer someone else, perhaps it's time they open their eyes...or their wallets. 

Whether it's wives, husbands, significant others, choir members, volunteers, or caregivers, sometimes a dry well is just the shocker people need to make them appreciate what they have, and what is being done on their behalf.

When one says they're going to...let's say... take a seasoned citizen out for breakfast, guess what the seasoned citizen does? 

Rises out of bed ultra early-- at the crack OF the crack of dawn, to get ready, then sits near a window and eagerly looks for a car to pull into the driveway. When one calls 5 minutes before the seasoned citizen is anticipating walking out the door and cancels, guess what the seasoned citizen does? 

It's strangely, almost like what happens when a non-custodial parent fails to show up to pick up their child for the weekend. 

Someone else, then, has to deal with the disappointment--and it's best to always be prepared to do just that. 

Whether it makes things better, is comparable, is accepted, or rejected, is debatable, but switching gears and springing into action (when your springer isn't exactly awake) is at least something.