Waking up with this nasty taste in my mouth, I pick myself up from my troubles and write. Feeling better than I have for the last few nights, my mind tires of thoughts of pain and discomfort. The scales of emotion are hopefully turning to a more optimistic frame of mind. But this change often doesn’t comes without it’s cost. 

Yesterday was a particularly uncomfortable and embarrassing day. With the unpredictable defecations of a toddler, I had to run errands outside the home. At least in town I have the security of my daughter’s home to escape to if needed. So off I went. Thankfully, my errands were quick and without incident. The regretful part did not come till later in the evening.

As evening approached my sugar was getting a little low. Dinner included me dicing fresh vegetables and preparations included number of steps. My bride unable to handle most complicated task due to her condition, left the cutting and preliminary steps up to me. Normally this is just an everyday thing. But after the stress of the day and my rising physical anxiety, I exploded. 

My wife was getting frustrated with my more than apparent critical tone. This in turn infuriated me. Causing me to scream out a series of unfortunate expletives I sorely regretted saying after closing my mouth. This left my wife in tears and me feeling like a pile of… you know. We finished dinner silently and separately, letting the moment pass. 
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As a caregiver I am held to a certain standard. To the point that my emotions have to be kept in check. Once my temper starts to flare, I usually have to go into safe mode and bury my feelings deep within. With no real outlet other than an occasional text to a long-distance friend. I am left alone to deal with my fallible humanity. 

Why I’m writing any of this is unclear. On social media we hide behind a curtain of strength and happiness. Yet on the inside we all have our fears, our anger, and our regrets. Me and my wife are okay now, but the damage was done. The Saint of Lucille Avenue has once again been proven to be no more than a sinner. But what can you do? Other apologize and ask forgiveness. Of those you hurt and of yourself. 

“Nearly four in the morning”, he thinks to himself. Laying next to his peacefully sleeping partner. “No worries on her mind” he jealously says. As he wonders through the endless thoughts in his head. He smells memories of an ocean. The slight crashing of the waves. And for a brief moment, he’s walking effortlessly on the sand. 

But those days were always numbered. His mind clouded by the words of the doctors. But he’s fought back before and he can do it again. “Everything changes”, he thinks to himself. “I’m getting too old for this shit”, he mumbles under his breath. Still, he searches deep for some inspiration. No gods to cry out too. No phone a friend to call.
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Distant and alone, his searches his own soul. Hearing ghost of the past. Friends, teachers, the family that created his DNA; all calling, all comforting his troubled soul. “This to shall pass”, the ghost say. He looks down and sees a broken sanddollar. As his mind clouds over with the wistful mist of rest. 

Let’s talk about how shitty I feel. (And I mean that in the most literal sense of the word.) I’m weak, living on water, Jello, broth, and an occasional pack of instant grits. But the bloating in my belly still persists to the point of creating new stretch marks. Then for the third time in so many weeks I fell to the ground hard. Maybe I shouldn’t be documenting my personal troubles like this. But the whole point of writing it down is to let others who suffer know, they are not alone. 
 
This has been a very trying time, and some may even say, I’ve had it worst. But with each situation I always fought and bounced back. We’re always told that each of these troubles can be a learning experience. Well frankly, I’m about ready to graduate. This shit (again, quite literally) is getting old. And I know there are many that feel the same way about their given situation. At the moment this is not a learning experience, it’s me just trying to survive. Complete with reward challenges and a tribal council, just waiting to judge my every move. 
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If this sounds a bit bitter, well it should. Because I am tired and ready for this shit (again…) to end. For over three years I’ve been dealing with this in one form or another. Doctor appointment after doctor appointment, all guessing at the cause. If there’s any bright light in all of this, it would be that I have lost over 120 lbs. But even that came at a tremendous cost of lost muscle mass in my arms and legs, hence the falling down. Sacrifice and due diligence are noble pursuits. But in a moment of pain, the last thing you’re thinking about is any kind of trophy. You’re just wanting things to be normal again. 

I was awakened this morning from a deep sleep. I was dreaming of the ocean, smelling the salty air, walking hand in hand with someone I love. But the abrupt and persistent pain in my lower gut awakened me, reminding me that those days have passed. That the reality my situation limits my movements and any dream of silent walks and being able to be alone are long gone. I’m trying to not be bitter about the situation. Telling myself, “That it is what it is”. But the words only echo through my mind reminding me that my mind, body, and soul that are trapped in this circumstance.

I tell myself to be patient. But patience becomes a convenient term my for time spent in hell. I’m mad. Not only at my circumstance, but also at myself. It is said that ignorance is no excuse for the law. And yet, I continued to kill myself with a thousand tiny cuts. Knowing damn well I’d have to eventually pay the toll, much like my parents did. It’s bitterness and anger that fuel this tale. It’s honesty and a sense of failure that fan the flames. I will never cure myself with just the few words typed on this screen. It took me years to get here, and it will take me years more to get out.
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Life, happiness, sadness, anger, and fear all roll like an ocean tide. And right now, the tides pretty damn low. Not so much because I’m thinking of my own suffering. But because I’m watching someone I love suffer as well. Letting go of perceived responsibilities is never easy. But the grace I grant those I love; is the very thing I have to grant myself. Frustration and limitations are all just a part of growing old. Acceptance and understanding are things you and I must embrace, in order to recover and live again. 

Another summer morning babysitting George again. All the swelling in my belly has my back hurting, so I pulled out my daughter’s back massager working on that. George is pouting, because I won’t let him finish chewing up the plastic he pulled out of his toy. I thought I had quit raising youngins years ago…I guess I was wrong. At least he’s quit brooding now, because he’s back over here now laying across my feet.
 
It is so deadly silent in this house. At home Lisa or someone has the TV or something going all the time. At the moment all I can hear is the massage pad humming and George sighing because he’s bored. But, I kinda like bored. It’s beats the alternative of hearing nothing but noise. Now don’t get me wrong, I love and appreciate my family. But every once in a while, it would be nice to not have someone barge through my door while I’m working. Apparently, they missed the class on knocking.
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But for some people they live for the noise, they can’t stand the silence. I remember decades ago I was the same way, I thrived on noise. The adrenaline rush of the panic blocked out all the negativity I was feeling. It wasn’t till my mental breakdown that I realized I needed the silence. I needed to hear those negative cries for help. You see, there is no other way to heal the cut unless you address the wound. I’ve been experiencing a lot of noise lately. So today is a good day to listen and flush out the toxins that are still plaguing my mind. 

There’s nothing much to motivate you, when you’re up at 2:37 in the morning. It’s never one thing that awakens me, it’s sort of a combination things. From the tightness and weight on my gut, to the droning headache, and of course my ever present anxiety. Don’t get me wrong, things are much better than they were 10 or 15 years ago. But the shift from mental to physical anxiety, produces the same result.

So I lay here and type out these stresses and emotions. Trying to give myself some semblance of relief. But it is so exhausting dealing with the same emotional pain time and time again. But I push through, like a good little soldier. Always fearing the moment when the call to arms stops coming, and I’m left with nothing to push me forward.
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I don’t mean to be depressive or at the very least mealy-mouthed about the situation. Because it is what it is. I’m clinically anxious and depressed, mostly from a life full of bad choices. But it’s a chicken or the egg situation when it comes to blame. I suppose the key to it all is forgiveness. Forgiveness for the abusers and forgiveness for myself. In a society that calls individuals like myself snowflakes or overly emotional. Feelings do matter. How else do you explain the “insane” behavior we see around us today? So seek peace, search your soul, and most important of all plant good seed. Even in your hour of despair. Lord knows, I’m trying. 

Another sleepless night blinds my better judgement. But this time I simply get up and go to my workstation and fire up the old PC. Hoping that maybe the quiet glow of the screen will awaken solutions from a long-forgotten past. Granting me solace from a world long ago. Sitting up seems to have solved some of my gravity issues. Allowing me to be more comfortable, let’s just hope this comfort can lead me back to golden rest. 

The soft clicking of the keys brings its own quiet restitution. The glow of the desk lamp brings up familiar memories of late-night conference calls and all night calculations. Oddly enough it puts a smile on my face thinking of those days. Funny how the memories of pain and near destruction fade. But my body still reminds me of those facts every day. Still, I don’t hold any bitterness against my ambition. Because I fought hard for those goals that brought me here. 
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I understand ambition, I understand what it’s like to reach a goal. I also know the pain of a physical and mental breakdown and its aftereffects. Seek balance in whatever you do. Don’t allow one desire to blind you to the need for wholeness and contentment. I sit here now a living testament to the power of reaching a goal at all costs, only to stand on that summit and feel nothing. Don’t allow fear to overcome your peace of mind. Every day I wage war against my own fear. Only to realize that fear is just a part of the balance of life. That only through acceptance and love am I able to focus and discover my ever evolving truth.   

It’s so damn easy to tell someone to “quiet their thoughts”. But it’s a whole other thing to do it yourself. If you’ve ever read anything I’ve wrote, you know my work is littered with confessions of my own imperfects. Especially when it comes to my ability of quieting my own thoughts. It often amazes me to be able to process so much information about a subject, yet never being able to put it into practice.

I’ve listened to so motivational speakers and read so many books on the subject, that my mind is now numb to their affect. All they ever left me with was more guilt and more feelings of imperfection. And don’t get me started on religion, my wife begs you. Honey, I lived in the abyss for many, many years. “Hello darkness, my old friend…” was freaking theme song. 
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But I’m not going to lay here and give you another canned and homogenized version of how to overcome. I value your intelligence more than that. What I am going to say it is a non-stop journey that hopefully takes you to your nirvana or heaven or whatever. But my main focus here is to tell you, I understand. I get how you feel. To wake up in cold sweats and being afraid for no reason. I understand. 

Despite my better judgement, I come outside to have gnats for brunch. I wanted to check the garden, but I left my waders at the river. The garden looks horrible with too many weeds and blown over sunflowers. But the peas still look okay, and I don’t see too much blight on them from all the rain. We are still getting some of that wrap around from Elsa. But at least the wind is blowing pushing these damn bugs around. 

I’ve been up since 4 am, not having a lot of pain in any particular area. Just having enough aches to keep me up. I did catch myself an hour and a half nap between 7 and 9. Got up and began playing phone tag with the doctors and my pharmacist to get Lisa’s prescriptions refilled. This is becoming a way too often occurrence, I believe it’s getting about time to light a few fires under some asses. Being a caregiver may seem rewarding and even noble work. But in all honestly, it’s tiring, thankless, and unpaid. 
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I understand what it’s like dealing with a loved one that can’t fend for themselves. Oh, Lisa tries and often does the things she sets out to do. But there are those moments, when you wish nothing more than to just take care of yourself. These are hard things to say, but that doesn’t make it them untrue. For 34 years I have been looking after and making decisions for my wife. For 30 years, I’ve been doing the same for my son. Listen, I’m not asking for pity or even a pat on the back. I walked into this with my eyes wide open. What I am saying is to all those out there, I understand. 

Popping my three o’clock meds, my mind runs through so many scenarios. Clouded degrees of measure, between the what ifs and disaster prevention. The anxious mind is all about these scenarios. I mean, everything from the possible to the impossible. Laying here now I have to collect my wits, slap my hands together, and breathe in a prayerful pose. Raised more on the panic of “Lord, help me Jesus!”, then Namaste. I’m sure some of my peers would look down on me for being so “new agey”. But, what you gonna do?

So I take the good with the bad, listen to the complaints, and go about my day. I’ve learned no one is more wrong or right then anyone else. And that what you see coming through the door, is pretty much what you’ll see heading out. Still it amuses me to see people complain at the drop of a hat, when they don’t get what they want. Having temper tantrums like my three-year-old grandson. I don’t know what got me and that tangent but, what you gonna do?
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Focus! Yeah, I guess that’s what we were talking about. I often find myself wondering from one thought to the next. And while that can be a catalyst for a great many ideas, oftentimes it leaves you staring down at a floor full of broken promises, made usually to yourself. So you try and hide the trash but guess what? It’s still there. Compromise, not only with yourself, but others alleviate the clutter. Making simple goals instead of one giant task, creates doable solutions. While listening creates understanding, that in turn creates clarity. So, in today’s noisy ass world, what you gonna do? 

While the clothes are drying, off in the distance I can hear someone mowing their grass. I can also smell the wood from a smoker over where the fireworks will be shot tonight. Other venders and carnival games are being set up for today’s Fourth of July Celebration (in June). But I’m sitting here in my backyard with my back towards the sun. Filling my senses with all the activity going on around me.
 
For the past few days, I have not been at my best. The surgery my doctor recommended has left me exhausted, restless, and ready to return to my normal life. But the thing I have to remember is, is that my normal life was anything but. The dramatic weight loss and unstop digestive issues, have left me weak and lethargic. Add that to my ongoing heart and mental health issues, and it can be easily said I am a “hot mess”. 

While a poor gene pool might explain most of my medical issues. The simple fact I didn’t take care myself places a good bit of the blame squarely on my own shoulders. It would be so easy to just give up on myself or at the very least patch up what I see as wrong. But Band-Aids can’t fix bullet wounds. Either can “wishing” our problems away. It takes hard work and it takes making tough decisions to fix what’s wrong. 
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So at the moment, I’m laying here researching and creating plans. Plans that will hopefully keep me around a little longer. For life is not meant to be just lived. It’s meant to be lived wholly and fully. Many of you may be facing the same choices, so what are you going to do? Live a so-so life, that fades into the mist. Or live your life kicking and screaming until your last breath? 

Selfish. A word long absent from my vocabulary. A word long abandoned for the greater good. A word I dare not speak, for the bitterness that escapes my lips. It’s funny how certain things fall together, yet the moments are so far out of sync. For dreams that can be seen, only fade to dust, through the sheer movement of time. 

Bitterness, the part of me the escapes the most. A code, a marker left behind by my forefathers. A part of myself that plants the weeds I wish I could pull up. But my tears are all but dry. For the stoic I had become to survive made damn so of that. Yet I scribble down words, I often wonder if I really mean. For the joy of what was once life, is now all out of my grasp.
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Apprehension keeps everything out of reach. It paralyzes the words that should have been said. Freezes the moments I should have taken. Turning everything to servitude in an attempt to be worthy. Only to disappoint time and again the god I serve, acceptance and worthiness. Still that word, that word selfish; I dream but know I’ll never see. Draws nothing but poison from my veins. 

​Well, I’m outside underneath the sycamores again, with a can of Coke and a Slim Jim. This may not lend itself to a healthy lifestyle. But when your raised around roughnecks, factory workers, and other common folk; old habits die hard. Still, I got a little breeze blowin’ out of the Southwest. It’s hot, but not as sweaty as yesterday. I just took George back home; the construction crew have cleaned up and left. The roof and the trim look good, so hopefully my soon-to-be son-in-law got his money’s worth. 

Lisa got herself a proper shower while we were there (remember we don’t have hot water). But considering the temperature is in the mid-90’s, I think I can stand a cold shower when I get home. Besides it beats taking one outside with a garden hose like our neighbor use to do back home… naked. Don’t ask me why I’m bringing up any of this shit, other than to hear myself talk. But history and tales are important to us all. It’s sad to think my grandchildren are growing not hearing one story about their great-grandmothers or grandfather’s. 

We’re told to live in the present moment, the here and now, and I totally agree. But without knowing where we come from, what good is blazing a new trail without knowing where you started? I am a broken man no doubt. But without a starting point how do you know where to go? So maybe the point here is, embrace the moment, forgive the past, except your limits, and build from there. While the hair on my arms and my head goes grey, I do my best to accept to except these things. None of us are perfect but remembering who we are and where we come from; often gives us a prospective of peace. 

​It’s getting hard to focus anymore, I’m just starved for a little silly conversation. I’m just tired of talking about whatever ailment I have today. But after a light shower just passed through, I did rehang some laundry that hadn’t dried yet. There’s a breeze is light blowing from of the south, but it is strong enough to shoo away any gnats. I went over to the convenience store to get me and the cat Jim Slim and a fountain drink. 

Lisa and I had just come back from seeing the grandyoungins. But they were far too busy in building a blanket fort to worry about us. I’d put up a picture, but my daughter would get mad for putting up another pic of her messy house. But just to hear them giggling and laughing was well worth the trip. After we left, we want to the local grocery store. Now mind you, I live in the country, 27 miles from the nearest Wal-Jacks. Yet this country store doesn’t have one bag of dry beans. I’ve had a hankering for some slow cooked baby Lima beans. Looks like my hankering for real food was crushed by a country store full of processed food. Talk about a food desert. 

You know, life can be rather boring. Kitchen table issues don’t make for lots of likes or attention. We’d all rather see beautiful sunrises and beautiful lives. Well, those silly conversation I have with my father-in-law each Sunday, are a beautiful life. Don’t take for granted what your everyday life can teach you. About the dreams you have or maybe even lost. Right now, it’s raining hard again. The clothes are back off the line and that wishful dream of being in the sun. Well, it’s been put up for another boring day. 

Knowing good and well onions in any form are not good for my belly. I still made oven fried onion rings anyway for supper. For which I paid a dear price in pain and discomfort. Have you ever found yourself doing shit like that, knowing good and well it’s no good for you? It can be as innocent as buying that 64oz fountain drink you really didn’t need. Or something as tragic as falling in love over and over again with the same toxic personality. I admit, I’m a blooming idiot when it comes to such things. 

My bad choices have caused me and my family hardships. Never one to take the safe route, I’d spill from one awkward situation to the next. Thinking that this time things will finally go my way. My older daughters would often wait for the next “shoe to drop”, when any decision was ever made by me. It’s probably why they don’t trust me much now anyway and why I don’t really blame them. But there are times even in my “godless life”, where faith is required to save the day. 
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I suppose you could call these things mere predictable, that at some point the odds work in your favor. You could say that only a small percentage of goodness is granted by compassion and even a smaller portion given through destiny. However, when it happens, it happens. Too many times in my life unexpected miracles have occurred. The point is to be aware of your own stupidity. Never forget to forgive yourself and to make amends with those you wrong. I won’t ever stop making mistakes, that’s for damn sure. But my life doesn’t have to be a tragic story, if I don’t let it. 

At first it was an adventure, the feeling of relentless love. Absolute focus like you’d never felt before. But decades of love, support, and caregiving; have left you with an overwhelming feeling of loneliness. Yes, there has always been affection and the gift of children. But are those enough? The guilt of selfishness, of anger, and verbal abuse. The weakness from your own shortcomings, the loss of patience and trust.

So you soldier on, trying hard to make things important. But the distance grows, separate lives bound by total dependence. Never daring to speak, much less write, for fear of the words screaming back at you. So you make do with what you have, never really knowing if you were ever good enough. Bleeding through a pen, scribbling thoughts like dazzling diamonds.
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So where do you go? You live in eminent domain, going neither left or right, forward or back. Feeling trapped, knowing you can never leave. Confession it’s said, is good for the soul. Yet you wonder, do you have any soul left? So you hide where you can. Seek droplets of affection where they fall. Preforming like a trained monkey dancing for change for someone else.  

This has been a week full. To start off, I had two doctor appointments in two different cities. Thinking I’d made my doctor quota. I ended up having go back to the hospital for four more hours of testing. Needless to say, my head’s kinda spinning. But I got home before lunch, then I went and checked on George. But now I’m back home again sitting in the shade.
 
You’re probably thinking, I spend my life riding the roads between doctor appointments and in a way that’s sorta true. But when you’re the caretaker for two disabled adults, the highway becomes your home. Add to that all the shit I put up with, and yeah, I ride the roads between doctor visits. I guess I could just sit around and feel sorry for myself. Or I could stay mad at the world for giving me such a shitty life. Not saying that I haven’t done neither one of those things. But somewhere buried in my psyche as the will to just move on. Call it fear, call it motivation, but it’s there.
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Do I say all this to motivate you, maybe? Do I fill these pages with my sad life story for the attention, hardly? All I know is laying under an imaging machine for two hours can teach you some things. Things like life is more than just waiting to die. That each of us has a purpose and it’s up to us to find it. That wrong turns and stupid mistakes don’t have to be the end. With me, what you see is what you get. I can’t put it any plainer than that. If you find yourself stuck, in the dark, or afraid. Know that taking a moment and really looking at yourself, often provides you with the best answer.

It is said, life doesn’t put any more on us than we can stand. Frankly I’m not so sure about that. I mean, I’ve had moments in my life where I did lose all hope. Where fear had completely overtaken my thought process, where reasonable thought gave way to panic and hopelessness. Life not placing upon you more than you can stand. Does that account for the millions buried in mass graves around the world? Or to those that die daily from disease and/or poverty?

I feel that for the most part I have a clear desire to survive. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be typing this right now. But the weight of life can place unforeseen burdens on us. Burdens that are often repeated over and over again. Or burdens that slam us so hard, that we are simply overwhelmed. I can’t offer you any solid solution to these situations. I dare not try and offer you any canned solutions, because each person is different. But the first true epiphany I had was realizing that anything outside myself wasn’t going to save me.
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Begging for some unseen force to protect you, certainly didn’t rescue me. But the expertise and compassion of others did. Therapist, counselors, and doctors all played a role in educating me in the art of survival. As the years progressed, damage was also being done physically. Here my second epiphany occurred. That of learning to let go and let others carry the burden. Rather it was physically (doctors, nurses, family) or spiritually (burdens, stress, fear), I had to learn to let go. There are moments when life places more upon us. The lesson is learning to face up to your fears and that it’s okay to let someone else carry them for you. 

It’s funny how sometimes you have to step into the confessional to cleanse your soul. But what if the sins weren’t entirely your own? We can step into situations not entirely of our own doing. But does that still make us guilty? The one person that has disappointed me more than anyone is myself. So does that make me someone that simply enjoys self-abuse? Or does that make me a pawn in this primal world of dog eat dog?
 
On my journey of “spiritual enlightenment”, I have been taught to be selfless and giving. Yet the world displays its need for aggression and selfish pride. Why is that? We all have the capability to show kindness. Unless you’re the one throwing paper towels at desperate people after a hurricane. Sitting next to the lake yesterday I simply breathed in and took in the scenery. Then my truest and pretty much only friend texted me. In a few lines she showed a vulnerability rarely seen from her. As she typed I read, reconfirming to me why we have relied on each other for over 40 years. 
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We all wear our armor. Being taught from an early age only the strong well survive. But even the strongest and most successful of us have burdens that are often too much to bear. The point here is, don’t let society and its impulsive social norms draw you in with its fear. Just look around you. Doesn’t the Christian Bible say, “consider the lilies” (Matthew 6:28). Maybe if we stop and breathe the answers will come. Fear is a seed grown from the unknown. Peace and calm are grown from awareness and understanding. 

Don’t panic, just breathe. That’s what I tell myself when feel the old ticker is fibulating. I’m never quite sure if it’s a physical or mental thing. I guess that’s what makes it an adventure, I suppose. Still I find that calm measured breathes help. I’ve lived both ends of a varied life. One where I hustled and struggled for every dime; and one were taking it easy is now a necessity.
 
To be honest, neither is great option. Yet one often leads straight into the other. But it makes me wonder if some of today’s modern medical miracles have robbed humanity of its natural order. I mean is living a life where you have to tiptoe over landmines like A-fib or CHF really living? Or should we be destined to live and die by our life choices? I know it’s a shitty thing to think about and besides I suck at philosophy. 
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Hell, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, art. Through the benefit of medical science and a healthy dose of fear, I’ve learned to slowdown. And in doing so, I’ve learned to develop my creative talents and grow with them. So while evolution may say, “only the strongest survive”. The cognitive mind often says, “Wait a moment, I have a solution for that”. Every day we wrestle with the natural order of things to accomplish our goals. But in the end, it’s quality not the quantity that makes it all special. So don’t live in fear of the moment. Embrace it and see where it goes. 

Surprise. Surprise. I’m awaken from a sound sleep…again. This time by an extremely foul taste in my mouth and the slightest flutter of my heart. The foul month I could explain away as the remnants of meat laden meal. But the atrial flutter, well I hadn’t had one in a while. Maybe it’s just me over doing it yesterday?
 
Aches and pains are certainly nothing new to me. Given my amped up sensitivity to change via panic and anxiety. It’s something I’m often confused by, meaning, I don’t know rather to stay or go. The classic fight or flight reaction. Sometimes if I just calm myself, the emotions and physical manifestations will soon disappear. But often that’s easier said than done. 
So I’m left either continuing to fear my state of health. Or discovering what a paranoid fool I am. It’s basically a no-win situation, that leaves me physically and mentally spent. So I sit once again frozen in my indecisiveness. 
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God, I wish I could give you an answer for this shit. I guess my one true weapon is honesty. To stop hiding behind excuses and being very candid about my situation. Putting my words to this screen makes this my confessional I suppose. It may not be a perfect system, but for now it’s all I got. Making me accountable, at least to myself. Don’t let your physical or mental health dictate your happiness or joy. Do the best you can. Seek professional guidance. Do it for yourself, you’re not alone. 

There are moments when I feel stuck. You know, stuck in my position in life, stuck in some bad situation, or just plain stuck in a moment. Being who I am, I can’t help but have a little pity party for myself. The kind where the world’s just not fair and everyone’s out to get me. It’s 2:38 in the morning, I was awakened from a sound sleep my body’s urge to pee. So to kill time before I reclaim my dreamland, I checked out a little Instagram. Scrolling through the images, I see the happy productive lives of my peers. And like a poison all those post were telling me nothing except I’ll never measure up.
 
Now I don’t mean to sow bad seed on those I follow. It’s just that at vulnerable moments like this, I feel like the rest of the world’s moving while I’m stuck in the moment. But if I think for a moment and look deeper into the relationships I’ve formed, I realize we all struggle. That there are times when we all have to give ourselves a little pep talk just to make through another day.
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But again being who I am, the weeds of doubt and fear continue to bloom. I don’t care how much you may want your garden free of weeds. At some point you’re going the have to put in a little work and rake and hoe it out. Some prefer out to just stray their garden with poison for a quick fix. But doing so choke’s away much the life you’re actually trying to grow. So don’t feed yourself a constant diet of self-doubt and hatred. Rejoice at the accomplishments of you friends. Then be willing to put in the work to clean out your own plant beds.