Short or long term thinking?

‘Don’t think of now, focus on the future.’
‘Don’t worry, one day it won’t be like this.’

Short vs. Long term thinking

We have all been given this advice, offered it to others, or proscribed it to ourselves. But surely we have also done the same with the following:

‘Just take one day at a time.’

‘Don’t think of the future, concentrate on the now.’

Yet which stance is right? Which advice should we take?


Our long term is devoid of hope

The problem with the first set of encouragements is that for us Watchers long term is very long term.

The ‘foreseeable future’ is generally what people label as long term. Yet when someone suffers from a chronic illness there is often no hope squatting on the horizon to look forward to.

The ‘foreseeable future’ is not long term enough for us, because our future contains no resolution to focus on. In this sense ‘long term thinking’ is impossible.

We can have no hope that an end will come, that a cure will be formulated.

Our long term is amazing

For Christians of course, we can look at the long long term. Continue reading “Short or long term thinking?”


Perhaps you have been here:
A knock at the door.
You answer.

She holds a covered dish:


She asks how we are, how our Loved One is.



She shifts on the door step:






It’s not fair!

4 things to do when you run out of sympathy




So is a state of sympathy.


Do we simply give up?

Do we stop Watching?

First of all let us ask ourselves a probing question:

Why is lack of sympathy a problem?


Is it really that wrong?


That answer is right.

But it’s also wrong.

Everything becomes normal


Yes, you are a burden to your chronically ill friend…

I have.


Are you a burden?
I am.

Sorry, but you are a burden


But more often than not, our real burdens are people.


