Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Such a month we've had!

Everyone gets at least one of them--a time when things just can't seem to go right. Both my husband and I have had a month filled with unanticipated and unusual health challenges. I'll spare you most of the unpleasant details. The important outcome is what I've learned from our Crisis Month.

Lesson 1: Like it or not, we're mortal. As we age, we become more brittle, more easily damaged. I've learned that I can't do everything I did twenty years ago. Or ten. Or five. I need to do better at listening to my body and letting it lead in decisions about what I should and shouldn't do. 

Lesson 2:  When we're in trouble, we learn where we can find our true support. One son drove more than twenty miles to come to the house to clean up after my husband took a nasty spill in the bathroom and went by ambulance to the local ER. I rushed after him, expecting to clean up the mess when I got home. (Hubby is on blood thinners. The room looked like a murder scene. Enough said.) When the ER doctors did the testing they wanted and sent us home sometime after midnight, I found the room clean and all the affected towels and rugs already on the spin cycle. I could not have been more grateful.

Another son--a busy CEO of a medically-connected start-up who is also a PhD candidate still in serious coursework, a father of five young children, and part of the lay leadership in his congregation--took hours out, two days in a row, to check on us and help us work through all the various doctor reports. Again, I am deeply grateful. 

Other children who live out of state have volunteered to fly or drive to where we are, at any time, at a moment's notice, should we need them. They've called to check up on us regularly. We know we can find support within our family. Two neighbors have volunteered to help in any way we need and have also stopped in to check on us. We can find support right here around us as well.

Lesson 3: We need to work together. When my husband first fell, there was a time when, if I tried to ask about what may have caused the fall, he thought I was accusing him of something and got angry and defensive. It took me a while to bring him around to the point where we were working together again. This all had to do with his own injuries, but I still found it difficult. When I took a fall of my own, just a couple of days ago, he was right there for me. He has been ever since.

I'm not including pictures with this blog, largely because I don't particularly want to show off the cut over my brow or the black eye I'm sporting. I look like I went three round with the champ. (Spoiler: I lost!) We're pulling out of Crisis Month and hope we've learned our lessons. If you haven't learned these lessons from your own experience, perhaps you can learn them vicariously through ours, thus avoiding a Crisis Month of your own. I hope so. May your coming month be beautiful.

Susan Aylworth is the author of more than 20 novels. Her newest release is The Trouble with Rainbowssixth book in the Rainbow Rock Romances, released last week. A Joyful Eve in Christmas Town, a revision of last year's Joy Comes to Bedford Falls, releases tomorrow as the first book in the new Christmas Town series. More books are coming this year in both series. Over the Rainbow, a prequel to the Rainbow Rock Romances, is available free for only a short time longer to everyone who subscribes to her newsletter. You can sign up on her website: susanaylworthauthor.com. Contact her on her Facebook author page or via susan.aylworth.author@gmail.com or join her on Twitter @Susan Aylworth. 


4 comments:

  1. Susan, I find it inspiring that your sense of humor has survived these challenges so well. Maybe that's an additional lesson...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A wise woman once said, "Sometimes you have to laugh or cry, and crying gives me a headache." :-)

      Delete
  2. So good that you have a great support system with your family. Praying your are both on the mend.

    ReplyDelete