What Is Right For You?

"Forget what you have been taught, so you can remember what you know." Alan Cohen

Seems odd, doesn't it?  -- that we are to forget what we have been taught; in order to remember what we know.  And, yet, it is true in many ways.  What have you been taught by word, example, or unspoken expectations about being a caregiver?  For me, my mother would express great dissatisfaction that a relative, son and wife, put their mother into a nursing home - despite the mother's displeasure.  I think my mother did feel for the aunt, but it also told me what my mother thought about putting people (perhaps her especially) into nursing homes.  One of the most difficult decisions I have ever made was to put my loved one into assisted living, and I probably could not have done it without the support of a few significant people -- because my 'teaching' was that one did not exercise the option of a care facility, but instead was to do the caregiving at home, despite the cost - especially emotionally.  It is a good practice to discover what we have been taught --- to see if it really fits who we are.  Surprisingly perhaps, much of what we are 'taught' does not fit us, nor support us.