A Pep Talk for Life’s Challenges

Face them squarely. They are looming and they will absolutely attack you full force, uninvited, just as soon as you stick a wavering toe into the dark.  So, I remind myself, look to those taunting trials as opportunities.  So many difficult challenges are artfully layered over and under rich discoveries that would remain otherwise unexplored.  Look!  Blessings in disguise.  Really?  Yes, really.  I have them. You have them.  But it’s often hard, nearly impossible, to recognize them through the fog that is everyday life. 

My personal challenges:

1. My children and their extraordinary issues, past and present… developmentally, behaviorally, medically.  Autism (now and forever) and leukemia (long gone, but with lingering effects). What to do?  Practice patience and trust.  Hope – always hope.  Be proactive.  God (think of the mysterious big plan).  Smile, keep a sense of humor, as absurd as that sounds for this first and foremost challenge.
2. My mother.  Aging, mostly sad (but sometimes happy), confused.  Losing control of her life and her function and her freedom.  I’m trying to keep alive in my mind the image of “mother” as clear as the sunlit day that she hung wash from the window of our two-story house in the Bronx, and smiling, she cursed the damn birds for eating from the nearby mulberry tree.  The strong woman who held my tiny hand as we crossed the street. Here also, humor helps.
3. Work.  Doing my absolute best at every opportunity.  Wishing that I could be more assertive in getting work.  Appreciating that I can be creative in other facets of life, too. 
4. Trying to do the best that I can as related to family – children, husband, sister, mother, in-laws, aunts and uncles.  I want to always be an available shoulder and offer help and encouragement. I want to keep a warm, comfortable home and a warm, open heart.  In caring about others we help ourselves – without exception.
5. Marriage.  We're good... but it takes work.
6. Friendship.  I have to remember to allow time for the wonderful friends that I have in my life.
7. Staying healthy.  There's always the challenge of the scale. 

 These are my challenges.  Full speed ahead.