The Crucible of Care
The carer's invitation to soul work
The work of the carer is unseen, undervalued, unappreciated, unheard. She carries on her work in the shadows. The carer receives little recognition, little thanks and little financial reward. Capitalism will tell the carer she’s valueless, she’s inadequate. The carer can mount up debts, be criticised and be forced to put her own dreams on hold while her time, energy and focus goes on tending to her loved one’s suffering.
The carer doesn’t choose the caring role. Life, the soul chooses it for her. In return, she must choose either to be a suffering victim of chance, or to see it as life’s invitation to soul work. The soul work so desperately needed in systems devoid of soul, care and humanity, valuing humans only when they create money; devaluing humans when they are sick and in need.
The carer is a soul warrior charged with bringing peace to raging conflict in herself. She is stretched in all directions. She is pushed to the edges of her mind by the bureaucratic demands of the system, she is burdened with the emotional labour and physical demands of being close to pain and suffering and she is pushed to spiritual doubt in the face of disease and the demands placed on her.
She is the alchemist discovering the pure gold of the soul through the chemical reactions and high heat in her crucible. She needs to overcome modern society’s obsession with intellect over emotion and creativity that’s left its destruction in her psyche. She must ground modern spirituality’s by-passing of suffering into fully lived, fully felt experience. She cannot survive without feeling, without dropping into the depths of emotion and into the wisdom of her body, making her psyche more whole.
The carer is the wise one archetype in the making. While society exploits and dominates the vulnerable, she is the strength that holds the most fragile vulnerability in her hands with advocacy, honour, and dignity. The strength that chooses to empower and not dominate.
The carer knows that whole-soul presence is her most powerful medicine.
What a stunning tribute to carers, as well as a call to all carers to appreciate the great value of their contribution, for others and for themselves
Excellent poetic advocacy. Loved it Jacqui! Thank you for writing.