Spinning Plates

Do you ever feel like life is a juggling act? I remember seeing performers whose greatest skill was spinning plates. They ran back and forth, working to keep the plates all spinning at once. Some days, caregiving feels like that. Lol. I know you know the drill. Feeding, transferring, dressing, bathing, walking, therapies, and the list just goes on and on. Lately, I've learned that it's okay if a plate or two hit the ground. Sometimes, it's physically impossible to keep every single plate spinning at a high enough rate of speed. One is going to fall. 

Having so many things that must be done every single day is definitely not easy. Most days - it gets done. One thing is for sure, I haven't died yet if I let one or two things slide every now and then for my mental health's sake. Of course, there are things that cannot be skipped like medications, treatments, and just getting up. But I'm learning that some things can wait. I won't die if I sit down for 5 minutes, and neither will Chris. An afternoon cup of tea is often a gift I can give myself.

Most days for caregivers are lived in full-throttle mode. I mean, we are caring for another whole individual. We basically do everything twice. We dress ourselves. We dress them. We feed ourselves. We feed them. We get up and go to the living room. We get them up and put them in a chair or help transport them to the living room. We bathe or shower ourselves. We bathe them. And that goes on and on, all day long, until we tuck them into bed at night and head for bed ourselves.

In between, there are many other things to be done, like cooking, cleaning, or working from home. I just made myself tired thinking about it. 

We always have a choice. In the midst of the spinning plates, we can become anxious and frustrated. Or we can choose to take the plates down every now and then, stack them neatly, and hand them to Him. We can even continue trusting Him while spinning our plates. We can trust that He will guide our hands in each task we undertake. We can give Him the crazy thoughts that go along with spinning plates. And we can rest in Him while the plates are spinning. 

Today, while I am spinning my plates, I will take a deep breath and trust Him to help me balance it all out. I'll trust Him to help me choose which plates need to keep spinning and which ones can be set aside for a while. Even though I'm busy with the must-dos of the day, I will rest my heart in His. Will you join me?

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I have two bookstores of devotionals, Bible study guides, poetry, and more! You can get my downloadable eBooks (some are free!) from Dove's Fire Ministries Bookstore. A few of them are also available in print or for Kindle on Amazon!