Got hope? Do you need some? It’s not the kind of thing that you find at the bottom of a bottle. Seldom do we see it when we look in the mirror, still others may be looking for it in us. When that long forgotten friend calls just because, is it the sound of hope that he hears in your voice? As you struggle to button your shirt sleeve, is your spouse overcome with a sense of hope that you will be fine? What other four letter words come to mind?
Fear
Yeah, I have been there; gripped with fear when my gait is off a little, when a new symptom appears out of nowhere or I’m up for the third time before 3:00 am. Do you find yourself asking, “What does normal look like today?” Will you let fear drive the bus and take you to a place you do not wish to go?
What message will I convey, when I meet that prospective client for the first time? Will my body language convey vigor and vitality or will it point to one whose is beyond the prime of his life, suspended between a delusion of immortality and ravages of reality.
Will
Been there, too. I thought I could just will my disease into submission, that it would cower in fear of my tenacity and resolve. What will your will look like today? Will it help you get up those steps, on that bike or write that next chapter in your life? Do you need an inspiring quote to tattoo on your forearm or your bottom?
Did you consider one from Frankl? Too little forearm? Understood.
Maybe Mark Twain is your guy;
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not the absence of fear.”
Still too lofty? How about something a bit more mortal? Try this one,
“I will get out of bed and put one foot in front of the other until I reach my destination!”
A little too bold?
“Today, I pray that my condition doesn’t worsen!”
Pray
There have been times that to pray it is all we can do. Our hope is gone, we are racked with fear and our will is crushed! Have you been there yet? If not, you are one of the few or you’re still in a river in Egypt. I have been there, in denial that is, and have been back a time or two; but that is not where we are meant to stay.
Trust me when I say, the day will come when your fear subsides, your hope is restored and will to thrive is back. I’m living proof.
Live
It’s your life, how do you want to live it? If you are reading this, something tells me that you aren’t the curl-up-in-a ball type. You still have something you want or need to accomplish and you have something that you feel that you are called to do. We still have time.
There is an upside to living with degenerative condition; when society expects less of us, we can let our true character shine and demand more of ourselves. We can muster the will to do more.
Life
It’s called life for a reason. We are still alive! We get to reestablish that vibrancy that we were questioning, to reclaim that ZEST that has been relegated to the health and beauty aisle between the Irish Spring and the Dial.
Love
Now would be a good time to tell those people who walk beside you every day how much they mean to you. You are where you are in your walk because of them or through them. A box of chocolate or some flowers would be a nice touch, a cordless drill or maybe even something embossed with the letters S&W on the barrel would make their day!
Thanks for reading, liking and sharing,
Thank you Ivy, those are very nice words. What do you mean what got into me?
Al and his faithful, but cynical sidekick, Ivy the wonder pup.