On a dark day I sit and allow sadness to creep across my face. Though my mother gave birth to four children it seemed that her day-to-day caregiving landed in my lap, more than ever, this last summer. “Is this even fair?” I bemoan to an empty room. “Wasn’t I the one that was pushed out of the nest at the confusing age of 18?”
After I let emotions run through me, I laugh out loud. The benefit of being independent at an early age taught me that thinking a problem through and taking action was the way out of a hard situation. I combine those thoughts with what my spiritual path taught me, which is that asking for divine intervention via prayer was the best way to ensure a good outcome for all people involved. So I looked at all my options and then surrendered the whole ordeal to Spirit.
Faithfulness is trusting that everything will work out right if directed from a Higher Power. For me, it is surrendering my personal plight to ‘Someone’ more all knowing than myself while allowing intuitive guidance to enter into the situation.
On a hot day near the end of July, I delivered all the items my mom needed and also the ones she requested to make her life more convenient, but she continued to voice many complaints. Sometimes a circumstance will worsen as a way to alert us to take action. When I got home, I had an instinct to call the Harbor Club (a very nice independent and assisted living facility blocks away from my home) even though she had been put on a waiting list months before and we never heard back. A high-school classmate of mine, Diane, happened to answer the phone, and she is the manager of the facility. She said they had an opening and we could come for a tour, but that I should not get my hopes up because my mom wasn’t the top spot on the list. When I met my baby-sister and mom there that following Friday they were already filling out the paperwork! I don’t know if Diane saw my eyes swelling with tears of gratitude.
I look out of my mom’s forth floor window watching the sunset amongst a sea of trees. Ironically, it is almost the same spot I used to gaze from when I worked in the PACU back when the Harbor Club used to be a hospital. I like to think I earned some good karma there, so that people will lovingly take care of my mother in the same manner in which I tried so hard to be a good nurse. I became acquainted with what I call ‘hospital angels’ during the many years I worked there. With a compassionate heart I ask those same beings of light to watch over my mom and help her to be well and at peace.
Not only is my mother now living in an elderly safe and adorable apartment, but it also has all the amenities (for a price) to convert it to assisted living as needed such as laundry, housekeeping, and nursing services. She loves the food and can go down to the community room to have three meals a day, seven days per week if desired. And there is a beauty parlor, podiatry assistance, and church services right in the building. Also, a bus takes residents right to Walmart or Piggly Wiggly every other week to purchase any needed items. There are many social events to sign up for, and on one of my visits I saw her near the library happily chatting with a group of women. Basically, all I need do now is take her to doctor appointments!
My mom was a penny pincher (pun intended) but because of her frugality she has the means to live her elder years in a wonderful place. One thing I have learned about faith is that all circumstances either have something to teach us or may turn out for the highest good of everyone involved ~ eventually!
Keep the faith ~ behind every cloud the sun is shinning!
Photo by Ed Augustin
Pen Augustin is author of Waves of Light and The Priestess Tale series. Pen loves to give messages about how we can heal ourselves and bring balance to our beloved planet. Living near the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan, she enjoys spending time in nature and communing with the local wildlife.