Caregiving.com

Stories, Support, Solutions
  1. Denise

    Flat

    by
    1
    | Denise's Blog, Weekly Comforts
    May 8, 2012
    Sometimes, you feel like you fall flat on your face. When you do, you wish you could just lay flat; it just seems easier for life to climb over you so you can hide from it. You’ve flat-lined. How do you get up? You become round, full of life and...
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  2. Denise

    Bright

    by
    4
    | Denise's Blog, Weekly Comforts
    May 1, 2012
    At first, it feels like a few flickers, like what happens to lights during a terrible storm. It’s a lessening of who you were. Then, it feels like the lights just go out and you’re no longer who you used to be. Caregiving can dim your bright light before you...
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  3. Denise

    Open

    by
    3
    | Denise's Blog, Weekly Comforts
    March 22, 2012
    The tasks of caregiving can be deceiving. They lead you to believe that completing the tasks will give you closure. Sometimes. At times, the tasks can bring closure. Your caree needs a new doctor so you research, investigate and find the best one. You mark the file “closed.” You need...
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  4. Denise

    Bake

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    5
    | Denise's Blog, Weekly Comforts
    March 14, 2012
    In your caregiving role, you’ll hear lots of half-baked ideas. Ideas like: Since  you’re so stressed, why don’t you just find a nursing home for him? Since it’s such a worry for you, why don’t you just divorce him? Since it’s such a struggle for you, why don’t you get...
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  5. Denise

    Business

    by
    1
    | Denise's Blog, Weekly Comforts
    March 8, 2012
    The business of caregiving often gets in the way of the purpose of caregiving. The business is the paperwork, the appointments, the budget. The business is also the drama—the fights, the battles, the clenched fists and crossed arms. All that business gets in the way of the true purpose of...
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  6. Denise

    Hole

    by
    1
    | Denise's Blog, Weekly Comforts
    January 24, 2012
    Sometimes, the struggle in your life can feel like hole in the toe of your sock when you’re wearing boots on a snowy day. It’s irritating, uncomfortable and aggravating. In the moment, it also seems unsolvable, like it will last forever. Like you will always be walking in your boots...
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  7. Denise

    Soft

    by
    4
    | Denise's Blog, Weekly Comforts
    January 17, 2012
    Oh, this caregiving is so hard! It’s making your life hard, your day hard, your heart hard. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if caregiving seemed like the softest mattress possible, always giving such a comfortable landing. Or, that it tasted like the most wonderful soft-serve ice cream, so creamy and delicious...
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  8. Denise

    Look Up

    by
    1
    | Denise's Blog, Weekly Comforts
    January 10, 2012
    How many times during the day do you catch yourself looking down? Perhaps you look down because the weight of caregiving seems too heavy. Or, maybe you look down because it feels like your life is down there—going down the drain, flushing down the toilet. Or, you might be looking...
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  9. Denise

    Positive

    by
    1
    | Denise's Blog, Weekly Comforts
    October 25, 2011
    Often, when I shop at Target, I struggle to find a cart that’s not tarnished with someone’s trash and whose wheels don’t bump loudly along in the store. And, so it feels sometimes in the struggle to stay positive. Our cart in life can fill up so quickly with trash—the...
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  10. Denise

    Marathon

    by
    3
    | Denise's Blog, Weekly Comforts
    October 13, 2011
    Our Chicago Marathon took place on Sunday. On Tuesday night, I had a dream I ran, and finished, a marathon. I ran it in four hours, 50 minutes. I also ran it without having run more than three miles on any previous run. Today, I wonder: Was that really just...
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  12. Denise

    Hand

    by
    1
    | Denise's Blog, Weekly Comforts
    September 12, 2011
    Oh, you need a hand in caregiving. Some days, you wish you had three hands. Other days, you just wish someone would pitch in with their hands. And, other days, you hope caregiving is not something you ever have to hand to another. And, then you have those really tough...
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  13. Denise

    Labor

    by
    2
    | Denise's Blog, Weekly Comforts
    September 6, 2011
    Caregiving can be quite laborious, can’t it? And, often, it can feel like anything but a labor of love. It can be such back-breaking labor, from the lifting, the cleaning, the transferring. And, it can be such heart-breaking labor, as you stand witness to pain, loss and struggle. It’s hard...
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  14. Denise

    See

    by
    3
    | Denise's Blog, Weekly Comforts
    September 4, 2011
    Some days, you may want to scream to the world (or perhaps to just a few inhabitants of your world): “See!! Do you SEE!! what my life has become? Do you see?” Because all you can see are doors that close, people who leave and luck that brings bad. You’re...
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  16. Denise

    Easy

    by
    2
    | Denise's Blog, Weekly Comforts
    August 25, 2011
    We may spend some of our day looking around at others and think, “Their lives seem so easy. I wish I were them.” What looks easy to you, though, may be the cover of a life that’s tough for them. Easy is in the eye of the beholder. So, rather...
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  17. Denise

    Song

    by
    4
    | Denise's Blog, Weekly Comforts
    August 15, 2011
    When we’re children, we sing all the time. We sing songs to learn, to express ourselves, to connect with others. And, then somehow, as adults, we seem to stop our songs. Sometimes we stop singing out of embarrassment that others may hear our imperfect key. Other times we stop singing...
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  19. Denise

    Paste

    by
    1
    | Denise's Blog, Weekly Comforts
    July 19, 2011
    Some days, you might wish you could reach for the paste, so you could glue together the pieces of your life. Caregiving can seem to act like a scissors, cutting your life into bits and pieces. Rather than trying to paste together what was, put together a new picture of...
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  21. Denise

    Reality

    by
    4
    | Denise's Blog, Weekly Comforts
    July 5, 2011
    I love to watch The Real Housewives of… Well, any city, state or county. New York City, New Jersey, Orange County, Beverly Hills, Atlanta. I’m there. And, I love the spin-off, Bethenny Ever After. (I even emailed Bethenny to invite her to be a guest on the talk show to...
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  22. Denise

    Turn

    by
    2
    | Denise's Blog, Weekly Comforts
    June 28, 2011
    Your stomach may turn. You may feel like your life has turned (upside down). And, then, comes the hard question: When will it be my turn? Sometimes, in caregiving, it can seem like you’re in line at the buffet, only to have everyone and their cousin step in front of...
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Take Comfort

In Take Comfort and Take Comfort, Too, Denise takes a word, applies it to your caregiving situation, and then offers a reflection of hope. Buy here.

The CD

Now on CD: Take Comfort, Reflections of Hope for Caregivers. Bring Denise with you in your car, in the waiting room, during your difficult days. Buy here.

The Years

The Caregiving Years, Six Stages to a Meaningful Journey, helps you answer the questions: Why me? Why now? What now? Buy here.

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Help, A Collection of Stories by Those Who Care, the first in our CareGifters Book Series, is now available! Proceeds of our book sales go toward our CareGifters program. Buy here.