Hello my dear empaths,
First a heads up: this post is long. I thought about cutting it in two, and sending it out different times… and then I thought nah, just send it…because it is all of a piece. The thoughts are coherent, I know you’ll get it.
I hope it’s helpful.
I hope you’re doing well. I hope your loved ones are doing well. And I hope that you are enjoying life right now!!
A few days ago I sent out a blog post about a podcast that I had been interviewed for. I hope you saw the blog post…and I hope you listened to the podcast. Both were really good! And you can find it right here www.myfourthact.com Season 3, Episode 114
The point of this message though, is that this was the first blog article that I had written and posted in close to 2 years. Close to 2 years…omigosh…I can hear you say…but why so long??!!
Yes…and here’s the thing… sometimes life does what I call “put a stick in my bicycle spokes”! That just means that things came to a screeching halt…. and girl, did they ever!!
When I was diagnosed with an infection that put me in the hospital…and I had to pretty much lay inert in a hospital bed for 6 months… and then when I came out, it was physical therapy, rehabilitation, more of the same… And I was starting to relearn how to walk! Omigosh!! Well yeah, can you just imagine how many things I had forgotten how to do, spending six months in a hospital bed, getting surgery, treatments, procedures, having the nurses hang endless dripping bags of medications next to my bed,
etc., endlessly… That was it for my life during those six months!
And before I go on, I want to be sure that you know I’m not complaining. I am incredibly grateful. I am blessed. I am here. I am alive. Would I do it all again? You bet I would? The thing is I would do it all again because I love my life… I love being here on earth… And I really do love being me!
Before I go into that, I will share with you, that the very first day that I came home from hospital inpatient physical therapy rehab…
one of the first things I did was sit down at the kitchen table, ask my husband to bring me a cutting board, a knife, and some potatoes and onions. And I simply started chopping! Why? Because that felt like ME. It felt like the “me” that I remembered… like the “me” that I know…
I swear that in the midst of feeling happiness and joy at doing something so familiar and beloved, I actually breathed a sigh of relief… like “oh my gosh, this is actually ME…. I didn’t completely disappear…”
Well, creating a blog post a few days ago gave me that exact same feeling! Something I had not been able to do for quite a long time, I was able to do…. and it felt like ME now. Why was I not able to do it? Because I forgot how to do it. Honestly, publishing a blog post is something that came back to me pretty easily with the help of my amazing and kind virtual assistant…and her guidance.
However, I tried to do the same thing sending out an email to my community and the email server that I use had changed their platform. It seemed more complicated and I did it, but it sure wasn’t perfect. There were some glitches and some mistakes. And that didn’t help me feel like ME. I’ll keep working with it and see where I get. But the blog post absolutely helped me felt like ME.
I want to share this with you because sometimes life happens… and puts that “stick in our bicycle spokes”, and we might forget about some of the things that we really enjoy doing and that make you feel like YOU.
If that’s true and you can get some help and support to remember how to do those things and get started doing them again….DO IT… Do it despite your ego’s protests or arguments that that was then… this is now… you’re too old…you won’t remember… etc, etc. Do it
because it’s a piece of you that you will be thrilled to reclaim. That’s how I feel right now. Seems like a small thing just posting on a blog….but it was no small thing… for me was exciting. It was rewarding. It made me happy, made me really happy. It made me so happy that I sat there at my desk looking at it on my laptop screen, grinning and laughing out loud!
So bottom line, my dear one….yes!! Do what makes you happy! Do what makes you happy as much as possible…no matter what it is!
If you have to stop and think, and remember how to do something, or if you have to like me, relearn how to do an old familiar thing like walking again, my motto became “If I don’t do it, who will?”
So I implore you to ask yourself that same thing. What is it that I want to reclaim? And how much effort will it take? And if I don’t put in the effort…who will? Am I willing…?
I love you so much. I know enough about life these days to know that nobody gets off without challenges! I know that I’m not the only one with serious challenges in my life. So please please respond, let me know what’s going on with you too.
And if I can help, support, and guide you lovjngly, kindly, please get in touch and let me know.
Bottom line is, when it comes to life, we are all in this together!
Sending so much love and so many blessings…
Jan
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