Homeland Security

Welcome to Caregiver Friday!!

We attach meanings to words and phrases and over the past eight years “Homeland Security” has been a big issue.  We hear about it on the news, in the papers, and in announcements at the airport.  The “Homeland Security” that defends the country is the macro level when it comes to safety and security.  On the micro level “homeland security” refers to how safe you feel in your home.  Let’s face it, the diagnosis of the person you love was the first breach in the home border. 

Lots of companies will provide you with information about making your home safe and secure on the physical level.  They will install grab bars, ramps, etc. but that’s not the safety and security I’m thinking about; I’m thinking about your emotional and spiritual security.  The vulnerability of a loved one also makes you vulnerable.  It may have challenged your financial security leading to anxiety, your “social” security leaving you isolated, and your spiritual security wondering how a benevolent supreme being could allow hurt and pain in the world. 

The truth is that security is an illusion we create to alleviate our intolerance of the unknown.  We set up little vignettes in our minds that provide comfort because life in general is full of unknown and anxiety.  The security you’re looking for is an internal process.  It can’t be bought, read about, or transplanted.  It has to be cultivated and nurtured like a seedling once it sprouts.  You have to seek out the elements that will allow your internal security to flourish so that any challenge can be overcome with the resources you’ve developed.

Your caregiving responsibilities challenge all the assumptions you had about being in a relationship.  It requires you to go beyond the current boundaries of your soul to a place that continuously fortifies itself with the knowledge that all the answers lie within.