Pranic Healing Character Building Stories

Love Even When It's Hard- A Story on Loving Kindness and Unconditional Love

This is the story of a young woman named Beatrice* and her dementia grandmother, Carmen*.

Beatrice spends a lot of time in The Manor as a service. Being a good granddaughter, Beatrice helps her family with Carmen. She serves her grandmother as a debt of gratitude. Not to mention, she does this as a way to reciprocate all the times Carmen took care of her.

She very frequently reminds Carmen to drink water. Moreover, every morning, she prepares Carmen's drink of Laurin oil and reminds her to take it.

She also helps prepare Carmen's food and water at times.

A couple of times, she has helped/supervised her aunt Katie* when she (Katie) shampoos Carmen's hair.

What else? Beatrice, knowing that Carmen is deteriorating and understanding dementia well, remains patient with Carmen at all times. Even when Carmen asks the same question repeatedly, forgets certain pieces of information, or has meltdowns, Beatrice never loses it. On top of that, Beatrice never ceases to love her grandmother however trying times with Carmen are.

She never tells Carmen insensitive things like "You're deteriorating!". Neither does she act sarcastic like saying "Come on, keep shouting!" when Carmen blows her top.

Here are examples of instances when Beatrice loves Carmen amidst trying times.

1. OCTOBER 21, 2019
Beatrice and Carmen were seated at the dining room of Carmen's unit in The Manor*. Beatrice was stroking Carmen. Carmen, with her distorted feeling sense, felt that she was being tickled and hurt. Next, she started fussing and melting down. At some point, she wanted to hit Beatrice and break her (Beatrice's) arm. Beatrice felt that her patience was being tested; and she wanted to excel in this test. What did she do? She gently reminded Carmen a few times that the former was just stroking the latter. However, Beatrice ignored Carmen a lot of the time. Eventually, Beatrice resolved to adjust to Carmen by refraining from touching her- knowing that Carmen gets sensitive to certain types of touch.

Later that day, Beatrice said that her grandfather Reggie* was late in coming home. This was because Carmen asked what time Beatrice and Reggie would leave for Beatrice's own condo, Rainbow Residences*. "Grandpa said 4pm but he is late." responded Beatrice.

Beatrice thought that Reggie was supposed to bring her home at 4pm. He arrived shortly after 4.

Carmen was sensitive to this and said that Beatrice was rude. "It is BASTOS! (rude) said the sensitive, melty old lady. Beatrice assured Carmen, "I'm not being rude. I am just stating a fact."

Sometime later, Carmen lashed out at Beatrice and said more unreasonable things. For example, Carmen said, "If I were Grandpa, I wouldn't bother to bring you home. I would just make you walk there!". Beatrice didn't like this episode at all. Yet, she still chose to be loving and patient. She stayed quiet for quite a long time.. again.

Carmen was just about to hit Beatrice. Yet, Beatrice stopped her and defended herself.

Later on, Carmen reminded her granddaughter that Reggie planned that he and Beatrice leave anytime starting 4, not exactly at 4. Beatrice was relieved that this time, Carmen was a bit calmer.

Beatrice messaged her aunt Katie* about Carmen's episodes and how she (Beatrice) handled them. In response, Katie reminded Beatrice not to touch Carmen. Moreover, Katie told Beatrice not to state that someone is late. However, Katie was impressed with Beatrice's resilience. Beatrice agreed to follow Katie's advice.

What else? Beatrice shared some tips for Katie on what not to do to Carmen. Aunt and niece love to inspire each other to be more loving and patient to Carmen.

Beatrice decided to stay a bit more at The Manor. However, she decided to leave Carmen alone so that the latter would calm down. Next, Beatrice went up to her room to relax and do self-healing.

Beatrice could've broken down too and let Carmen ruin her day. Instead, she remained levelheaded and chose to do self-healing.

2. NOVEMBER 6, 2019
Beatrice was chilling at her room in her second home, The Manor. Carmen came to visit her for quite a while. That was okay with Beatrice; however, Beatrice gently reminded Carmen not to visit too much. Beatrice also reminded Carmen not to visit when the former is doing her Arhatic Yoga meditation.

Carmen agreed with those rules. However, she found them too demanding, took it personally, and started to get upset.

Beatrice didn't melt down at all. Instead, she patiently reassured her. This especially included saying that Carmen was welcome to visit but Beatrice couldn't take more than 3-4 visits in a day. Beatrice also said that they had to be short.

Carmen even requested that aside from a verbal reminder, Beatrice puts a sign on the outer part of the door to her room. Carmen said that the sign should read "Meditation in progress from x to y". Beatrice agreed with this; and again, this meant adjusting to the style that's best for Carmen.

Beatrice could've stopped loving Carmen and given up in times like these.
Beatrice could've chosen to serve Carmen only during easy times.
But no- she chose to love Carmen unconditionally and even when it was hard.

That was a karmic investment for Beatrice. She succeeded in the test of her true character.

Good karma be to Beatrice!

The end.

Moral: To be truly loving and kind to a person, one has to love him/her not only in easy times but also during difficult times. That means loving a person even when s/he is hard to love. That is UNCONDITIONAL love.

*not their real names