Caregivers are always beginning a new. It comes with the work. Time and again they are knocked off their balance point and scramble to find a way to get back up. The art of caregiver recovery is made easier with “anchor points.” Anchor points are emotional touch stones that call you back to who you are and restore your exhausted heart.
David Wagoner’s poem “Lost” is a beautiful litany about anchor points, the redemptive power of nature amid the here and now…
Lost
by David Wagoner
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.