There are a lot of inequities in this world, but there is one gift that all of us, regardless of age, ethnicity or ability receive equally. It doesn’t matter who we are, what we do, where we live, or how we think; we are all given 24 hours in each day.
Imagine if every morning someone handed you twenty-four $100 bills and told you that you had to spend every penny of it before the next morning. What would you do with it? Would you invest it? Would you share it with others? Would you spend it on a good time? Would you build or create something? Or would your squander it?
When you are caring for someone who can’t manage all of his/her own needs, it can take up a lot of your time. You may not have as much freedom and flexibility as you once did. It may be hard for you to leave your loved one home alone. If your care receiver doesn’t live with you, you may have to carve time out of every day to run their errands, take them to a doctor or check in on them.
However, if you are going to maintain the physical, mental and emotional strength you need to keep going, you will need to find a way to carve out some time for yourself to do something that energizes your spirit and brings you a little joy.
Think about the hours you have to spend today. Is there a way to turn some of your mundane tasks into something more pleasurable? You will spend time fixing meals. Perhaps instead of eating in front of the television you could go outside and eat on the patio. You could make a list of nagging projects and then set aside the time to get at least one completed. You could even say to your care receiver, and anyone else who makes a lot of demands on your time, “I need a little time to myself. I’m going to (fill in the blank).”
We aren’t guaranteed much in this life, but we can count of having 24 hours in every day. Some of those hours may be committed, just like some of your money is committed to paying bills each month. But I hope you’ll remember that you still have some control. Think of the old saying, “Time is money” and then consider how you want to spend yours. I suspect if you are willing to invest a little in yourself, you will discover that you have a lot more to share with others.
