My dear friend just asked me why I hadn’t posted for a while. That prompted me to check. Sure enough two blog posts I wrote a few weeks ago were still in draft mode. Ironically, one was called “Am I losing my mind.” So the answer to that is probably “yes.” The second one was entitled “Metamorphosis.” Coincidentally, that is the stage I feel my life is in as I write.
I’ve always told people to appear like a swan gliding across the lake no matter what is going on in your life. Regardless of the stress, chaos or pressure, just glide. Below the waterline you may be paddling like crazy, but no one should know it. I firmly believe grace under fire reduces the pressure for everyone around you and every situation you encounter.
Advice that is all well and good, but what about when reality hits. The reality of things like these:
You work and your kids aren’t going to school. Who watches them? Do you leave your job to care for them? If you leave your job who pays for your health insurance and your home mortgage?
Your daughter is getting married. Do you delay the ceremony in order to invite more people when the bans are lifted? When will it be safe for Grandma and Grandpa to attend the ceremony?
You’ve lost a loved one and you can’t get closure because there is no visitation.
You work for or own a small business and due to a particular governor’s edict, the small business must shut down.
You’re a vendor for a professional sports franchise. And because no fans are allowed to the game you are out of work.
You’re providing home health care for an elderly person and you have no experience with any facet of that process.
How do you remain calm and carry on?
The simple answer is you practice what you preach. You take one process, one activity, one hurdle and one day at a time. You focus on the task at hand. Once that task is completed you tackle the next task or challenge. You treat every person you encounter with grace, dignity, professionalism and courtesy.
Remember not to let other people, talking heads on TV or Social Media to rent space inside your head. These people seem to enjoy filling our brains with divisive rhetoric and even fabrications of situations and events that tear us down, depress us and in some cases incite us.
Instead, control what you can control. Most importantly, you MUST realize there is a higher power in charge. If you think you are in charge, you’re not. Often times people don’t realize this until time has passed and they are able to look back and realize what happened and why it happened the way it did. It’s at that point the light bulb shines brightly and you realize through God’s grace all things are possible.
I’m speaking from personal experience. I’m living a couple of the scenarios I described above. They have brought me to the apex of the rollercoaster and made me feel like I could easily go over the edge. But I didn’t. I was able to pull myself out of the perceived crisis and face the future, no matter how uncertain it appeared to be.
I surrounded myself with positive thoughts and positive people. People who think I can and I will, not I might or maybe not. People who believe they are not in control, but they are certain who is.
I’m not out of the woods. The crisis will continue for me, for you and for America, but we must stay positive, have faith and treat one another as we would want to be treated. So simple I know, but also so challenging.
Until next time…