Before Glennon Doyle became a best-selling author, podcaster, memoirist, and many other things, she was a blogger who started a blog called Momastery. Back in 2012, this post "Don't Carpe Diem" was making the rounds of social media in a pretty viral way. I still love the essence of that post, which is that trying to seize the day puts a lot of pressure on you. And if you can just seize a couple of the magical moments that happen with your kids each day, that's a success.
I'm trying to adopt that philosophy as I move through the recovery process. Sometimes, I find those moments when Stacy and I are watching a movie together and life feels normal; or when I'm sitting out on the back patio with the dogs nearby and the breeze blowing; or, when I'm doing the dishes after dinner. Stacy typically handles most of the dinners that involve cooking, and not grilling out. And if she's going to cook, no matter how many pots and pans, she uses, then the least I can do is clean up the aftermath. But until the last few days, washing dishes seemed a bit out of reach for me. The other night, however, I was up for it and Stacy allowed it. And as I stood at the sink, scrubbing the remnants of bolognese from the pot, I felt one of those moments, and it felt good.
32 days post transplant and it's not as if one day, I'm going to wake up one day and everything will be back to normal. Change comes imperceptibly, like the changing of the season. One day, you might notice the new buds forming on the maple tree outside your bedroom window, but you don't see all the steps that happened along the way to get those buds to bloom.
I'll keep taking those little steps behind the scenes - if it's going for longer walks, working for a couple hours, or doing the dishes.
It's true, each day has all of it's own blessings and goodness to last the rest of your life!
ReplyDeleteI'm behind and just catching up, and I literally have tears streaming down my face after reading this one. We're currently undergoing a not-wanted or welcomed house reno after the intense CA rainy season caused water damage in half our house and, as a result, have a limited kitchen right now. That means no dishwasher. I have been so sick of handwashing dishes, and even though I know that is crazy spoiled and I try to remember every day that there are many people who don't have a dishwasher ... or a kitchen ... or a home, it was still driving me nuts. But this post was a real eye opener. I'm pretty good about keeping perspective but this was just the kick in the a** I needed. I hope you're keeping notes for a book.
ReplyDeleteooops, that last comment was me ... did 't mean to do anonymously!
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