Putting Together the Puzzle

When was the last time you put together a puzzle?

When someone dumps a puzzle out of a box and onto a table, what’s your strategy?

I’m betting the first three things you do are: Flip over all the pieces that are printed side down. Locate all the pieces that have edges showing they are part of the border. Put the border together.

Once you start the way most folks begin the process, it’s anyone’s guess what you do next … we all have our own way of putting the rest of the puzzle together.

Caregiving is one of life’s great puzzles. So often, people who are thrust into a caregiving role believe it’s supposed to be done in a specific way ... but that’s just not true.

The “border“ of caregiving, the one area of focus that everyone should have, is safety. Once you make sure the person for whom you are caring is safe, everything else is open for discussion.

We’ll have family, friends, experts, and advice-givers saying, “this is how you MUST do it!“ Don’t listen to them. As long as you have the safety issue covered, the rest is up to you and the person for whom you are caring.

Don’t let trying to put the puzzle together make you crazy. Find your own way.