She gave up everything to take care of her failing, aging parents.
Her life will be there when she returns, but a one way ticket brought her to her parents' sides.
There's a big family.
Need I say more?
The more I hear, the more grateful I am for my siblings' willingness to let me take the lead when G'ma was here in Tucson. We never argued over decisions or choices. Everyone was clear about what made a livable life for our mother, and they were happy to leave the day to day decisions... and the major decisions.... to me.
They included G'ma and my brother and my sister. We were all on the same page.
Unfortunately, my friend is not as lucky.
She had to stage an intervention.
I offered Big Cuter's sage advice, shared from the couch one Mom's Xmas Tree Decorating Day:
Dad, I think there are two options here:
Help or Compliments.
I don't see viable alternatives.
And I offered this:
Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you.
And, I offered this:
Do No Harm
But Take No Shit.
Anybody got anything else?
Not knowing any details regarding that situation, I can't offer advice; but I do have one thing that fits with your quote above. When my husband retired, his friends and those who had worked for and with him gave him a t-shirt that on the front said Big Dog. On the back it said-- I don't fetch and I don't beg. Ironically he only started to wear it yesterday as he had pushed it aside in his closet. I thought it was kind of cool in terms of someone going full speed ahead to get done what a person knows need doing. Fetch is really a meaningless game throwing something nobody needs returned other than for the joy of one who loves to fetch or power. fetch means dancing to someone else's game and one who won't fetch is one who won't play that silly game.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing we have for a saying in our house is if you don't like how I am doing it, take over the job. Otherwise--
Love all of these quotes--especially the one about doing no harm. I think we often don't realize that if do take shit, we are hurting ourselves. So I try to not be a doormat for anyone. But I also love the one about life being too short. I've had to take that advice a lot the past few years. I cannot surround myself with people who will suck the happiness out of me. Especially because I'm responsible for three other lives. They need me to be there for them.
ReplyDeleteHope you had a lovely weekend.
Megan xxx
I love that my readers are self-sufficient! No fetching and no begging and like my way or do it yourself.... life is too short for nonsense.
ReplyDeletea/b
If I could turn back time....wow. A lot can change in one year.
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