Risk Is A Part of Life But Joy Is A Choice

This is Peter Roseburger and this is a minute for caregivers. Saying Happy New Year every January 1st can often feel perfunctory and even meaningless in the caregiving world. But most of us know that January 1, 2, 3 etc.

usually brings the same challenges as the previous week and year or years. Yet although our responsibility may not change, we can. While many fall into the trap of ambitious but unrealistic New Year's resolutions, I usually give up my New Year's resolutions for Lent, caregivers can instead determine to live rather than just survive. Living, however, requires risk. Life is perilous, despite our culture obstinately working to mitigate all risks. Isolating to avoid disease, injury, rejection or failure is no way to live, nor is avoiding death the same as living. From gardening to music, anything that involves life, art and creativity comes with the risk of failure as do relationships, business ventures and caregiving. This year, I intend to push myself to learn, try, accomplish and even fail new things. History teaches that risk and heartache remain unavoidable, but joy is a choice. And Larry McMurtry said, from Lonesome Double, one of my favorite books, favorite movies, this great character he had in this book, who's an old Texas Ranger named Augustus McCray, and he said, It ain't dyin' I'm talkin' about, it's livin'. I doubt it matters where you die, but it matters where you live. This is Peter Rosenberger and this is an excerpt from my book, A Minute for Caregivers When Every Day Feels Like Monday, available wherever books are sold. There's more at HopeForTheCaregiver.com