09/06/2026
For the ones in the middle.
I haven't written one of these in a couple of weeks.
Life has been a lot lately.
Today I had a conversation with Dad's nurse. She's a charge nurse, and she's been helping me navigate some of the craziness that comes with caring for an aging parent.
Somewhere in our conversation, she told me that she's also caring for her sister, who has stage 4 cancer.
And I haven't stopped thinking about that.
There are so many of us in this season of life.
We're helping our parents while maintaining a relationship with our children.
We're loving on grandchildren.
We're working.
We're making decisions for people we love.
We're trying to keep appointments straight, answer the phone, remember who needs what, and somehow remember to take care of ourselves somewhere in the middle of it all.
And sometimes, the person standing next to us at the grocery store, sitting beside us at church, or answering the phone at work is carrying something enormous that we know absolutely nothing about.
I don't want to offer a cliché today.
I just want to say this:
If you're tired, I see you.
If you're worried about a parent, I understand.
If you're trying to be strong for your children while quietly wondering how much more you can carry, I understand that, too.
If you're grieving something that hasn't happened yet, or trying to prepare for something you don't want to think about, you're not alone.
There are a lot of us in the middle.
And maybe sometimes we don't need answers.
Maybe we just need someone to say, “I know. This is hard.”
So if that's where you are today, I hope you know you're not the only one.
There are a lot of us here.
A lot of us figuring it out as we go.
A lot of us carrying more than we ever imagined we would.
And we're here.
You've got people in your corner.
Maybe we don't have the answers.
Maybe we can't fix what's hard.
But we can listen.
We can understand.
We can remind each other that we're not alone.
I've got your back.
And I hope you know I've got yours.
