Care I think all of us have a need to feel that someone cares for us. No matter how much we may put on a brave face, no matter how much we may say, and even think, that we are independent, at heart we respond with gladness when someone cares for us. And no matter how much of an isolationist we are, there is always something in us that has a need to care for others. And this caring need not be a physical thing – just to know that someone cares if we are alive, that they care enough to check on our well-being, is enough to move us. This mutual caring is a very precious thing, even though sometimes we treat it with little respect, and can actually seem to be working against those that care for us, or take little regard of those for whom we should care. And yet for some of us there are times when we are truly alone, with no one to care for us, and no one to care for. This may be through our own fault, through circumstance – the reasons are unimportant. What matters is what we do about it. Do we hide away from all contact, telling ourselves that nobody cares and refusing to help others? Do we build up resentments against all those who have others to help them, and in this way make ourselves more miserable? In other words, do we take this lack of care, and build it into something to be miserable about – something that we can fret over and pick at like a sore on our arm? There is a better way. Since all of us need to care for someone, and be cared for by someone, we can let that someone be ourselves. We can look after ourselves as we would a sick friend. We can see that, even though no one else is there, we can still be caring of the one person that needs care the most – ourselves. Rather than sitting at home waiting for something to happen, we can go out for a walk and see the world. We can care for our bodily health as we would look after someone recovering from an illness. We can build up our mind and our spirit by caring for them, and not letting our minds fall into disuse, or our spirits diminish. It may be that through this self-care, we become people others wish to care for, or that we finds others that need our care; but that is not the point of doing it. The point of self-care is that we need to do it for ourselves, to be true to the God-given creation that is uniquely us.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 17:25:25 +0000
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