Creating our circumstances

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them," George Bernard Shaw.

As dementia caregivers we may balk at the idea that we have created our own circumstances, and perhaps it is not helpful to deeply consider that possibility. Afterall, we are here, so now what? I think that is the better application of the above statement: we can create our circumstance to be what we want. We can't change the fact that a loved one has dementia, but we can change our attitude toward it. Do you view it as a burden? Is it possible to change one's attitude to seeing how the dementia might be bringing out the best in ourselves or someone else? A friend suggested the idea that perhaps dementia can have the purpose of allowing a person to do their soul growth here and now before they die. There is no way for us to know what benefit dementia may have for those who have it, but we can choose how we are going to respond to dementia as caregivers. We can create the environment and circumstances that we want within this role as dementia caregiver.