大象传媒

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This week, throughout Britain, is 'Carers' Week', a time for six and a half million unpaid carers to be noticed and appreciated, not just by the people they care for so devotedly but also by the wider society that just couldn鈥檛 cope without them.听 Six thousand people become carers every week, organising their lives in some new way to make space for the needs of a person who matters to them, a person who may once have given them care, and who probably still offers love and appreciation.听 For some carers the sacrifices are huge, as the need to care outweighs career, retirement and the joys of other relationships.听 For some carers it can鈥檛 be done alone, but only if the relief of respite help is there to share their load.

The theme of Carers' Week this year is 'Prepared to Care?', and that's with a question mark at the end.听 I love the double-meaning of that phrase; asking perhaps whether you are willing to be a carer, and perhaps whether you feel ready for the task.听 But I'm sure that clever phrase asks us, above all, whether each one of us is willing to bring light into the lives of others, sharing whatever light of hope inspires us, in this mid-summer season of long days when the world's beauty is so visible, but in the long routine of a life of loving someone who depends on that love, that willingness, that preparedness to care.

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O light of love and compassion, in the hearts of those who care for others you help them to see the way ahead and keep them faithful.听 Strengthen us in every moment when we are called to attend to another more than to ourselves, and help us to feel we receive blessings even as we are sharing them with others, today and every day. AMEN