Author: ponderingmissylou

A Degree or Not

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4e423748-9da1-41e8-81e9-fd289ed9edf7Today, I feel I will lose yet another key person in my life.  Finding myself at a doctor’s appointment, which was for me, it was me giving advice and encouragement to the doctor.  Thankfully, he confided in me, knowing of my own counseling experience but also that I can be trusted and that I care and will pray.

It took a lot of guts to remove the mask and for him to express his own depression, etc.  Perhap he will step aside for a bit to benefit his own self-care, as my counselor is doing.

While I do not know for certain that is her issue, odds are it is, depression and burnout.

Day in and day out of hearing other people complain and definitely confide in them of things that we would probably not handle well, no matter how much education and training, it takes a toll.  It has to.

Years ago, I had a doctor for many years commit suicide.  While he was not the friendliest doctor, I trusted him.  His death knocked me off my rocker for a bit.  Questioning myself, perhaps if I would have been more thankful or made him laugh or even shared God with him, of which I regret, he’d still be my doctor.

Today, I did not fail to share God’s Love with my doctor.

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Again, we never know what the next person around us, at any given moment, is going through, whether it is depression, burnout, etc.  Just because they have a degree, they are not exempt of having issues and wearing a mask appearing all is well.

They, too, need the Love of God and to know that their patients/clients are praying for them.

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Square Bushes

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For whatever reason, my mind jumped to the day my husband trimmed our bushes in our landscape after I had surgery.  This task was mine through the many years of home ownership and landscape care. 14c5f51f-9efe-4952-8db7-5b3d2f7ea116

Everybody has their own way of doing things and their opinions, which is fine but the OCD in me and the Aspergers in him collide.  This has happened so many times in our marriage to the point of craziness within me and no doubt within him, perhaps.

Since, learning of Aspergers just four years ago from my counselor and doing my own research, I have become more tolerant of him.  It is fair to say, I feel less crazy, too, by knowing why he does things, which is normal with Aspergers.

So often, I wish I had known going into our marriage what I was dealing with.  I think the outcome would possibly be different, but not certain.

Just the other night, he made a comment of something he does that is odd and as he recognized it and said, that’s just me.  I confirmed that in him, that’s just you and there is nothing wrong with that.  Oh my gosh, who am I?, I thought.  Before I would have rolled my eyes and let him criticize himself with the negative talk.  We went on our merry way while shopping.

While we all have our own idiosyncrasies, patience is always needed for one another.  The day of the square bushes, I remember so well, the shock within me seeing them.  Now, I can laugh.

cb5dc8ad-5d67-4122-b8f5-bad49a99f162Taking time to thank him for helping but to help him understand that trees, bushes and all do not grow square, look around.  Plus, it makes a yard look old, yuck.  With some direction, it was time to do some adjustments on the bushes to make them look more natural and, of course, time to grow out.  We still laugh over this at times.

986f0f64-3d8a-47be-8f9e-baed519c1c3fWe all have rough edges and we all grow and learn in different stages.  In myself, I am not where I want to be but I am not where I was.  We have to be kind to ourselves and understand it’s a process.

With others, we need patience because we do not know what they are dealing with.

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Perhaps this is just a reminder to me today, of what I might be faced with as my day begins, I don’t know.  In life, there are square bushes.

Enjoy your day! 😊

Seasons of Life

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For so many years, I mean like over a decade, my winter season felt as if I was dead and I was just drifting from day to day, year to year, with no hope in sight of change.  I will die just existing in the doldrums of life.
Finally getting enough energy to walk through my counselor’s door years ago to hear her say that I was almost dead, was no surprise to me.  I felt dead.  It was a last-ditch effort to get my life back by trusting her, from the many hurts and pull myself out of the isolation I allowed to overtake me.
While it it did not come immediate, each session brought light to my dark mind of insecurities and struggles of placing one foot in front of the other.  So many times, I have been thankful that our bodies (my body) has the ability to maintain itself when we give up.  Meaning, the heart beats on its own and the lungs breath in and out without being told to.  Otherwise, I don’t think I would be here and at this time in my life.  I had no energy to make it happen.
As we go through the actual seasons each year, our lives do, too.  As my Pastor will say, if you are not in a trial now, you are either coming out of one or you will be going into one.  My thought to myself each time he said that was ‘just great’ in a sarcastic tone.   It does not matter who you are or what you do, we are not exempt of struggles and we all experience seasons in our lives.
Being reminded of the seasons today in a post that I read, I realized I am not in the dead-winter season, as I once was, which felt good to grasp and realize that changes have happened within me.
While not in the lively spring season or the flourishing summer but perhaps in the transititioning autumn season and I am okay with that.  At times I catch a glimpse of the others and I get excited.  Thank God I am not where I was!
My mind constantly reminding me though, knowing winter will come again.  Those thoughts are just the enemy to destroy any joy. With that, I have a choice of having fear hit my mind or I can praise the Lord of where I am and be joyful.  I choose the latter, it feels good to be alive.
No matter what season you or I may be in today or tomorrow, the Lord is still with you/us.  In the winter months, the root system grows deep and He is allowing that in each of us as it comes.  Trusting Him to strengthen our faith and trust in Him to help others do the same.