For Those Who Care Without Rest

You've traded nights of sleep for watching over a bedside. You've learned medication names, dosing schedules, the signs that things are getting worse. Nobody asks how you're doing — only how the patient is. And inside, you're tired too. You're afraid too.

I see the caregiver no one is caring for. I see every time you held back tears so you wouldn't frighten the person who's sick, every time you smiled on the outside while crying out for help on the inside. My invitation today is just for you: come, unload onto me the weight you've been carrying alone for others.

Caring for someone you love is an enormous act of love, but it was never meant to be carried without partnership. Let me step into this care with you — strength for the next shift, peace for the next poorly-slept night, the hope that this season, however long it feels, will also come to an end.