Monday, July 25, 2022

Packed a lot in This Year

 


Last year about this time is when I last posted.  I seriously considered quitting all my blogs and just shut down my internet presence.  This year, to say the least, was over whelming.  I wanted to spend it curled up in the fetal position until the storm was over, but life isn't like that.  I wake up, I'm in pain, life goes on, and I am using every healthy and unhealthy coping skill I can think of.  Sometimes things are just like that.  The old wife's tale says bad things come in threes.  This year felt like wave after wave after wave.  I would call it a water boarding year, an illegal form of torture, not to be used on enemies.  Yet, here I am, after a brutal year, still standing.  I had happy times sprinkled in to keep me going.  I felt gratitude for many things.  However, I learned that happy times and shared jokes don't undo the emotional impact of a tough year.  I learned that no matter how hard things got, arthritis still hurts, dinner still needs to be eaten, and making huge mistakes or huge successes does not change events.  I felt keenly the last freedom we have is how we respond to our experiences.  Viktor Frankl taught this in his book Man's Search for Meaning.  I am thankful I am through this year.  I am working at treating myself with more compassion.  No matter how much I prepared, I underestimated the powerful impact of two deaths in my family within 2 days.  A week changed everything.  I am stilling trying to figure out where I am, so that I can figure out where I want to go.  

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