First Chapter of a New Book on Caregiving

365 Messages of Hope, Humor & Heart for Caregivers

I was compelled to write my first caregiver blog on Thanksgiving Day, 2013. I posted it on Facebook, and I was absolutely amazed when a few people actually saw it and clicked “Like”.

For the next fourteen months, I jumped out of bed early every morning eager to write my “Caregiver Word of the Day”. I was thrilled when people posted comments and shared their own stories.

I wanted to attract more readers, so I hired a consultant who told me I needed to add professional images and optimize each post. So I learned the language of search engine optimization, including things like keyword phrases, meta-tags, incoming links, outgoing links, permalinks, tags, and alternate titles. I was also told that I would be penalized by the search engines if I posted the same content on my website that I posted on Facebook – which meant that every time I wrote a blog, I had to rewrite it in order to please Google, Yahoo and Bing.

As you can imagine, what started as a joyous sharing of thoughts, experiences and suggestions for the benefit of caregivers, turned into a technical challenge of epic proportions. It took all the joy out of writing my daily messages. I was on the verge of giving up my blog altogether until I spoke at a caregiving conference last week in Kennewick, WA.

My presentation started at 8:30 am and lasted until 4:30 pm. Throughout the day, I had time to visit with many of the attendees and hear their stories. I came away feeling amazed by the courage and character of the men and women who manage to find the emotional and physical strength to get up every day and take care of a developmentally disabled child, a spouse with a chronic illness, and/or an elderly parent with dementia. A couple of women were caring for all three types of family members- all living under the same roof! (I was impressed and humbled beyond words.)

I decided I want to continue to write for people who need encouragement and support, and I have to forget about everything else. So I’m starting a new chapter. I’m going write my blog with the intention of publishing a book in the fall of 2016. The working title is, “365 Messages of Hope, Humor & Heart for Caregivers”.

The search engines won’t like my new strategy, so I hope you will help me. If you know anyone who could benefit from receiving a daily message that will help them cope with the emotional stress of caregiving, please share this link and encourage them to sign up for a free subscription to Caregiver Help Word of the Day.

If you have ideas, questions, or suggestions, please send me an email. I’d love to connect with you.

If you need additional support coping with the emotional stress of caregiving, please click on the Caregiver Videos link on my website: Caregiver Videos