Choosing Healthy
It's been just over two months since I left the workforce to stay home full-time. The two months have been very full with summer activities, mind you. But I have to admit I've been frustrated. Somehow, in my most idealistic moments, I thought maybe quitting work would be the magic fix for my health, that I'd slowly see an improvement and a return to feeling HEALTHY for the first time in nearly two years.
It hasn't happened.
In fact, at times I've been more limited by my health this summer than I had been for months.
The past few weeks, in particular, have been a steady parade of what feels like little health setbacks--none of them major, but all of them leaving me feeling like I'm in a slump. Between flare ups of the usual symptoms, trialing a med that's been a little challenging, skin that seems to believe I'm 15 and not 35, a nasty cold, and other health hiccups, in the end I have to say I feel anything but healthy.
We read a devotional with the kids this morning that talked about choosing joy--not because it's the option that makes sense or comes easiest, but because we can trust in a God who is with us in all circumstances and because our outlook makes an enormous difference.
I'm letting go of an unrealistic idea of what health could look like for me. It just may not be the season (now or ever) for full health. But I think I can still carve out some sort of "healthy"--a new feeling of health--in the midst of what I'm experiencing. It means remembering how far I've come. It means eating well. It means taking a short bike ride with Henry after school. It means taking a nap, and then getting up and getting moving. It means putting on some makeup and a hat and doing what I can to look and feel good, for crying out loud!
Sometimes we have to make the most of what we have, to choose to be content in it. And for this moment, that's enough.
It hasn't happened.
In fact, at times I've been more limited by my health this summer than I had been for months.
The past few weeks, in particular, have been a steady parade of what feels like little health setbacks--none of them major, but all of them leaving me feeling like I'm in a slump. Between flare ups of the usual symptoms, trialing a med that's been a little challenging, skin that seems to believe I'm 15 and not 35, a nasty cold, and other health hiccups, in the end I have to say I feel anything but healthy.
We read a devotional with the kids this morning that talked about choosing joy--not because it's the option that makes sense or comes easiest, but because we can trust in a God who is with us in all circumstances and because our outlook makes an enormous difference.
I'm letting go of an unrealistic idea of what health could look like for me. It just may not be the season (now or ever) for full health. But I think I can still carve out some sort of "healthy"--a new feeling of health--in the midst of what I'm experiencing. It means remembering how far I've come. It means eating well. It means taking a short bike ride with Henry after school. It means taking a nap, and then getting up and getting moving. It means putting on some makeup and a hat and doing what I can to look and feel good, for crying out loud!
Sometimes we have to make the most of what we have, to choose to be content in it. And for this moment, that's enough.
