Feeling All the Feelings

1. 

   "So often, we war against sadness as if it were an unwanted germ, and pine after happiness as if it were some promised Eden."  Mark Nepo
   
   

   Nepo is making the point that professionals in mental health also make:  you cannot feel the joy unless you also feel the despair.  We must feel both ends of the continuum of the emotional range, both the ones we might call positive and the ones we might call negative.  As caregivers, we will most assuredly have feelings.  We will feel deep sadness, moments of sweetness as I described in another blog this week, and moments of contentment and well being.   Yesterday my time with my loved one was again sweet.  Although he was hallucinating a good deal of the time, we shared and talked and reminisced.  Perhaps, as caregivers, our task is to be present to whatever the moment brings, and experience the feelings that the moment brings up.  Actually, that is a worthwhile goal for any person, not just caregivers.