When life deals you challenges, how do you respond? Do you look for the lessons in the hard times? Do you figure out the path through and work your way down that path as best as you can? Or do you let yourself feel defeated and depleted?
I'm in one of those moments in life right now where things are not going as smoothly as they once were. My foot is taking a heck of a lot longer to heal than I had imagined, and I'm on week 8 of crutches. I definitely hit a breaking point last night when I couldn't put my son to bed because there was no way for me to quietly leave his room after he fell asleep. Every time I tried, my boot and crutches were too clunky and made too much noise for me to get out of the room without waking him up. And that made me really, really frustrated and sad. My husband had to step in. I am grateful he could, but at the same time, I was just fed up. 2 months is a really long time to not be able to walk.
On top of that, we had the worse scare the other night where our carbon monoxide detectors went off in the middle of the night, calling the fire trucks, police cars and ambulance to our house. We had to tear the kids out of bed and rush outside (we didn't even have time to grab shoes). Turns out that our backup generator was leaking carbon monoxide into our basement and we had absolutely no idea. How frightening is that? I am so thankful that our detectors worked and that the emergency responders came so quickly. It's unimaginable to think what the alternative outcome could have been. And then, when we finally got power back and were back in our house 2 days later, our upstairs air conditioner broke. It's been one of the hottest few weeks so far this summer, so - perfect timing, right?
So yeah, it's been a tough ride these past few weeks. Everything seems to be back to working order in the house at the moment (knock on wood), and now every morning when we wake up, the first thought that crosses my mind is that I'm grateful for another day, but the frustrations are still there. I am definitely trying to see the lessons in this hard time, and the biggest one at the moment is that I am learning the only way to get to the other side is to wade straight through the S*** sometimes. This is certainly one of those times - the only way for my foot to recover is for me to get through this period and keep going to physical therapy. The only way through is to wade through the frustration and keep believing that time and the exercises will help. Yeah, I have my boiling over points when I need to let it all out and I do - I hole myself up in my bathroom and have a good, ugly cry. And then, I feel so much better. I am thankful that my husband is so supportive, as are our parents, and they are really helping us all through this tough time.
I just keep reminding myself that overall we are still extremely lucky. We still have so much to be grateful for and that this, too, shall pass. Life has its ups and downs, and some times feel harder than others. Just remember that sometimes the only way through is to wade straight through the Sh** and just keep going. It will get better on the other side. So if you are going through it right now, know that I am right there with you. Keep going, you got this...