What's so sacred about shit at midnight?

It's midnight, you're tired you want to go to bed but the person you're caring for has literally just shit all over themselves. At times like this you wonder what is sacred about caregiving? I've had friends tell me they could not do what I do, that the idea of cleaning up an adult's shit or emptying the Foley bag is gross. Yet, these same people happily (well maybe not happily) clean up their small children or grandchildren. Still, as my minister said at that moment you are with someone when they are at their most indignant moment. It is the circle of life. If you are caring for your parent, they cleaned you up as a baby and changed your poopy and wet diapers and now you are doing the same for them. Someone told me today how horrified and undignified my mother must feel at having me clean her up. When I told my mom this, she said that the opposite is true. At those moments when I am cleaning her up she feels most loved. She did this for me as an infant and I do this for her as an adult. That is the time when mom says she feels the sacredness of my caregiving. I have met many people through my caregivers support group who are angry and frustrated at having to do this for the person they are caring for, often a parent. I can understand that. It is indignant work, I am the exception, because my mother is a nurse she understands what it is to be a caregiver both professionally and personally so she thanks me every day. Often the person you are caring for won't give you that support or that recognition. There are people within my circle who still don't understand what it means to be a caregiver. They don't understand that it means cleaning up shit and midnight and still an hour after you've finally cleaned the person up, the bowels start rumbling again and both you and the person you're caring for go "Oh shit please not again." So what is so sacred about shit at midnight? It's the act of caring for another human being and in that act of caring and serving the needs of another human being you are also serving God. I am reminded of the Christian story of Luke 7:37-38 "A sinful woman in the town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house. So she brought an alabaster jar of perfume 38 and stood behind Jesus at his feet, crying. She began to wash his feet with her tears, and she dried them with her hair, kissing them many times and rubbing them with the perfume." There are gifts that are within each of us that remain dormant until they are needed to serve other and in serving others to serve God. So when I feel I cannot take another load of shit (literally) I am reminded of a prayer I say "Dear Lord, I don't want to run away from this task you have set before me. I know there are gifts within me yet to be tapped in the service of others. I know that in serving others I serve you. I don't want to run away from the task but my ego is getting in the way. Please help me to connect with those gifts within me to help me face this task." Sometimes the prayer is as simple as "please God take pity on us. No more shit tonight."