Self Care

These are troubling times, right now.  Difficult times.  We don't know what lies ahead of us, but it probably isn't going to be a lot of fun as we navigate the peaks and valleys of the coming days, weeks, months.

If you are the kind of person who gives and gives, you will need to take some time to recharge.  Re-energize.

There are many analogies that set out to illustrate what is needed.  One is the spoon theory.  It was articulated by someone (I forget who, I'm sorry) with chronic illness.  She likened it to being given x number of spoons in a day.  On a good day, it might take only a few of those spoons to do what she needed to do.  On a bad day, she might run out of spoons just getting out of bed.

I saw another yesterday on Twitter.  Again, I forget the person's name, but if I can find the tweet, I will add it.

She likened life as being a sponge filled with water.  Over the course of the day you might wring a little bit of that water out here and there.  On a bad day, you might run out of water by noon, at which point the only way to continue was to stop, rest, absorb more water, then when you had more to give, carry on, wringing out a little water here, a little water there.

It was a perfectly timed tweet as I found myself plum out of spoons and no more water to wring.

Every single flight I have ever taken, the flight attendants have stood at the front of the plane and advised the passengers that, in the event of the oxygen masks being deployed, put yours on first, and only then help those around you.

So I withdrew from the internet - from Twitter, Facebook, Ravelry, and wallowed, just a little, in feeling overwhelmed.  Until I could let that feeling go, until I could find more spoons, soak up more water, breathe the oxygen.

As for the memes saying that during this time you need to work on a 'great' work, be hyper productive?  No.  No, you don't.  You need to survive.  That's it.  Survive.

We will do the 'great' work when we are through this and out the other side.   Or not.  There is no requirement whatsoever that anyone, anywhere, be 'great'.  We just need to be human.  And help each other.

She says it so much better than I could