Venting again

Big HUGS and lots of COMPASSION being sent your way.

Good morning, Friend,
I am here and I hear you. You went through a harrowing experience with tornados around you last evening. I cannot imagine what a frightening time that must have been.
But look at you! You are starting an internship for a graduate program! Just think of where you have walked the last few years and yet brave YOU are taking on a great challenge! How incredible is that? I think the most important sentence in your sharing was, “I want so badly to be able to walk the dogs again, feel like going to the store, many things that I can't do some days.”
Remember the operable words here are “some days.” You spoke in earlier postings about your seemingly never-ending struggles. For some of us who have high aspirations and hopes, it feels horrible and almost cruel that we cannot make our bodies do what our minds long to accomplish. So today you are not able to begin your internship that you have chosen to start. I think your tenacity to even take that on is admirable.
Over a year ago, I made a saying for myself after feeling such frustration regarding my circumstances. I was hoping it would provide an impetus to continue to strive for my goals and not completely give up. I took some of my nicest stationery and I wrote the following:
“It’s not for Forever. It’s just for Now…” I have this on my bedroom mirror and I see it each day. Perhaps you could find something similar that resonates with you to remind yourself that yes, you can go on. Yes, you can continue. And yes, someday your life may be wonderfully different.
Wishing you the best.

Thanks for writing this. I am recently diagnosed and having a rough day. I have suffered with chronic fatigue for the last 2 years and with the diagnosis am realizing it just isn't going to go away tomorrow. I am in the acceptance phase and it is leaving me overwhelmed and depressed. I needed the reminder that life goes on, it is just a different life. Spending today coming up with my mantra. ❤️

I have found that I get hope from listening to podcasts with recovery stories where they talk about their long journey and the excruciatingly slow path to feeling better. But they do make it to wellness, and I listen to these stories for inspiration. I like the Long Covid Podcast with Jackie Baxter. I tell myself that getting better might be SO slow that I won't realize it, one iota of energy better each day, and it will add up over time.

@quickstepper Thank you. I will look up Jackie Baxter. It is helpful to hear hope.

@caldiana13 Thank you! I am going to use my colored pencils and make a sign to put up, maybe a couple. I so appreciate your kindness.

@maxozbarker What did you come up with? I have several but they are easy to forget when I feel like (expletive). I woke up this morning with fatigue and I was irritable. I feel a bit better now having read the replies from you wonderful people. Thank you and hang in there.

@maranncha Back at you. It is hard to remember that I need to have compassion for myself. It is easy to blame myself for things. My friend told me to wrap my arms around myself...self hug. I forget to do that. Thank you for the reply. Grateful for all of you.

What a group of wonderful people on here. Thank you.

@diverdown1
Here's a hug you can see, print, carry with you, or share.
My dad was the best hugger! I made this [business-sized] card and gave them out to everyone as a "reverse offering" at my dad's memorial service (2001). My mom said, even years later, how friends told her they "still carry John's hug with them". I had a ministry for years where I left cards in random places to brighten someone's day(public restrooms on the toilet paper dispenser, at the gas pump in the credit card slot, on the table with tips at restaurants, in the "seat pocket in front of you" on plane flights, ...) Everyone can use a hug! Best when it comes unexpectedly from someone you don't know. One waitress told me once she had a pile of cards she's received that she can draw from to "pay it forward". I was happily outed as a chronic restaurant patron. lol (My mom told me once shortly after I got married, from one wife to another, "you need to feed your husband." Hmmm. Well, there are different ways to accomplish that...)
Anyway, consider yourself hugged!
Blessings
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