SpaceAgeSage

I don’t usually cry. As a third degree black belt, EMT, and former volunteer firefighter, I can take a lot. As a woman whose family loves to hide their emotions, it is hard for me to even show the deeper ones. But this has been a week that would try the patience of Mother Theresa, Ghandi, and all those Catholic saints. I don’t want go into personal details, but it feels like the equivalent of our house burning down, discovering a major illness, and having a pet die — all on the same day.

Now none of that happened, but with my mom’s Alzheimer’s going really hyper this week, with my husband’s recent nightly asthmas attacks leaving us sleep-deprived, with my hay fever draining me of energy and motivation, with both of us going through some really deep-issue resolution processes, and with a load of other “challenges,” it seems like everything has hit my husband and I all at once.

I am really glad for the positive changes my husband and I have been going through the past year or so, or this week would have torn at the heart of the wonderful relationship we have. Fortunately, we really do embrace this Louise Hay affirmation, “I rest securely knowing that only right action is taking place in my life at all times.” In Romans 8:28 of the Bible, it is put this way, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him …”

I have also found that such times of upheaval, strain, and extreme burdens bring character, inner strength, and insight for the next round. Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club, writes, “You have to be displaced from what’s comfortable and routine, and then you get to see things with fresh eyes, with new eyes.”

So despite this crazy week of over-pressurized living, I would have to agree with this man:

Tags: Alzheimer's, finding sagehood, parents