Caring for the Caretaker

The challenge for us in the caretaking profession is:

Is our personal glass 1/2 full or 1/2 empty?

While sitting on the Jersey shore, I read the following item in Newsweek that spoke to me of the challenges and the choices we face every day in the helping professions.

“What I am trying to get across is a sense of the dimension of the challenge without the exaggerated fears that often accompany it. Because either mankind is going to solve these problems, or mankind is going to cease to exist – it’s getting that stark. Now you can either get hopeless over that, or you can say, ‘Well, now, here’s an interesting challenge. How are we going to get through this one?’” We are invited everyday to get hopeless or to get active.

Our work is serious, life-saving and life-giving. We must continue to take our work seriously and we must learn to take ourselves lightly. We must learn to access joy in the face of adversity.