Deep Care

Caregivers—let’s admit it, when you care, when you deeply care for someone you love, you are as close as a human being can get to feeling, and experiencing what your loved one is enduring.  While most others call this experience empathy, we call it part of the everyday caregiving experience.

At first glance, this type of deep care seemingly would make us more empathetic in all of our relationships, right?  This isn’t always the case.  Caregivers like yourself understand that deep care is a full commitment of body, spirit and mind. It is not a part-time endeavor that you can let go of on your drive home.  It is a willingness to engage in a relationship that takes us out of ourselves and into another; blurring the boundaries that typically keep “you” from “me.” It is a space few people occupy because it is uncharted territory (for non-caregivers) that brings us into a place of being with another that defies explanation.

Medical professionals and specialists attempt to “protect” themselves from burnout and exhaustion typically associated with deep care by holding on dearly to “objectivity” so they can serve the greater good. But for you and me—deep care is our way of caring for the one—the individual, our loved one, not a series of patients that have appointment times marked by the half hour.  Deep care can’t be replicated. It can’t be made more efficient. It doesn’t work on schedule. It has no beginning or ending time. And it can’t be given without complete attachment.

That’s why being a caregiver is an identity you carry with you more than it is a task that you engage in only for a specific period of time. Sympathy has a beginning and an ending date. Deep care goes with you. Sometimes, it follows you.  Caring, deep caring, is not just a commitment—it’s a way of life; a way of being with another human that transforms everything you are and do.