If You Care...

On Sunday, Bob read a "Carer's Prayer" in Church - and I thought of all the people I know who have responsibility as carers

• elderly folk whose partners are disabled, or caught in the cruel grip of dementia
• young wives whose soldier-husbands have returned from the fighting physically and emotionally scarred
• parents [and grandparents] caring for crying babies and recalcitrant toddlers
• charity volunteers providing respite care, who struggle to push wheelchairs round the supermarket or down bumpy kerbs 
• professionals working in homes, hospitals and hospices 

I know that many of you reading this blog will fall into one of these categories- the work you are doing, and the love you display is appreciated - even if it sometimes feels that it is not noticed or acknowledged.

This is for you

A Carer's Prayer

Let me be kind 

when tiredness overwhelms my weary brain 
and turns my legs to lead
let me brave 

when truths must be conveyed,
confronting the past and all things left unsaid;

Let me fight on for the one I am caring for 

when various rules make nonsense of personal rights 

and reinforce the fears;
grant me the stamina to speak and treat with fools,
remaining calm when biting back the tears.

Help me to know somehow that life goes on
beyond this time of stress and sleepless nights;
and help me to smile and love 

in the midst of endless pointless and exhausting fights.

And when the caring ends, 

help me to be kind, 

in my guilt and weariness, 

to me.