Crisis

In a flash my reality as I have known it has changed. In an instant what I thought I knew about my life and the people in it has vanished, and I realize I am in the middle of a crisis. Now, it’s funny with crisis’s, we think they happen all at once. It does feel that way, and yet usually it’s because we finally see the whole story all at once like a million blazing lights. Were we just ready to finally see the truth? The truth that has been sitting on the bleachers this whole time waiting to be seen?

As I sit here after having spent many hours replaying events, trying to FIGURE out reasons, and meanings, and researching help, I am faced with an interesting question.

Where do you go when there’s a crisis?

When everything you thought you knew is suddenly bubbling all over the ceiling? When you feel like you must keep yourself busy but exhaustion hits?

That’s where I am right now, and I am grateful. I always know there is a lesson, I just have to open my eyes wide enough to see it. I KNOW it’s there, hidden in the shadows waiting for me to find it.

In this case, I think I know part of my lesson. And it is MY lesson. It was gently placed here in my lap for me to unwrap, uncover, and grow from. I can feel it inside my body, I know what this is. Here in front of me is the realization that I must make better boundaries. That I must make myself #1.

I have known this, as we all do in some way or another, but with this particular situation, being a step mom to kids whose mother is on the spectrum, I am constantly, constantly doing more than I should. I am keeping myself way beyond responsible for everything, and expecting her to do nothing.

I am putting the kids in front of me, and then my husband, and I am cramping up big time.

Why do I feel like it’s all my job to do alone?

If there hadn’t been an impulsion in these last couple of days, I would just keep doing and expecting that I must KEEP DOING.

But now I see what I am doing to myself, my heart, my soul, my body, my exhausted mind. I must slow down. I must allow space between what is in front of me and what I keep DOING.
I can no longer keep juggling, so that other people can step up.

The funny thing is is that I feel great for awhile when I buzz around handling it.

I feel accomplished!
I feel like a winner!
I feel like I have a purpose.
I feel loved and valued!

I knew there had to be reasons for all of this, and there is. I do get something out of it. To pretend that I don’t would be a lie. I can’t keep running in circles taking other peoples’ responsibilities over so I can feel like enough. I am not saving anyone anyway, and I am drowning.

So here I am inside of a crisis where I must matter more than all of them. I must take care of me first so I can even make a suggestion of what to do or where to go. I must create boundaries and allow others to fumble with figuring out the next move. I can do this, and I will.

At the end of the day, it’s my sanity on the line. It’s my joy that is being threatened, and it’s my peace that I’ve gladly been trading. I have done that to MYSELF. It was not done to me.

It is my job to turn it around.