Wednesday, January 15, 2025

A New Year, A New Set of Anxieties: Word of the Year - COURAGE

 


 

I am committed to blogging again.  I have definitely had a |slow-down” and have needed a great amount of rest to come back from being truly sick with RSV.  I can do something one day and then it takes another full day to get my energy back.  Everything takes longer to do.  But I am doing things.  The medication for the torn meniscus has kicked my butt but solved the pain problems.  I am slowly getting used to the medication over these few months.  The weight of a few months of exhaustion after a cruise, physical pain, emotional trauma is heavy, so it has taken some time to come back to some sense of Self.  My new word for the year is COURAGE.

There is a sense of uneasiness within me as this new year begins.  I have a sense of feeling a bit foggy, a bit confused, a bit of underlying unease and even dread.  And so... I turn my hand to doing some flowery, springy, type art I hopes to deflect some of the deep sense of caution and undefinable anxiety.  And, while doing art, I try to come to rips with what I can do to dissuade the anxiety.  Understanding can lead to a map towards feeling more hopeful and allow peace to come.  I am going to have to pull up my big-girl-panties and get some gathering of courage.

I was really ill for a few weeks.  I had not caught up with the energy spent on the cruise.  I had to go to Alberta, fly actually, and all that means to me.  I met Christmas knowing that I would spend it too quietly.  I have no reason to look forward to anything adventurous or exciting to do in the new year.  I can dream up things, but nothing seems to ignite anything in me.  I just feel tired.

There is a great deal of uncertainty, and disappointment, surrounding me as this new year begins.  I have important decisions to make...so important that I am almost paralyzed by it.   There is a shadow hanging over everything.  I am not depressed, I am anxious.  I do not have S.A.D., I am, again, disappointed. 

There has been a great deal going on in my life.  I have not blogged, nor done art, for months.  I did not have anything to say because there is nothing that CAN be said.  Life is dragging on and dragging me with it.    I am, in many ways, caught between a rock and a hard place.  Decisions I make will be best but that does not mean they will not hurt.  As it all came to a peak, I felt a calm come over me, but that calmness has turned to almost dread.  I know what I have to do.  As I held counsel with my daughter, I realized I felt almost relief.  Then I felt guilt.  I hate giving up on things.  I am not a giver-upper. 

I am taking one day at a time, getting my ducks in a row, but every duck leaves me with a sense of sorrow.  There are a great many “ifs”.  If only…  If perhaps… If maybe…

I am great at procrastinating when I HAVE to do something.  I stop being mindful, grateful, caring for myself.  I start to withdraw.  I am withdrawing.   I am trying NOT to feel.  Feeling betrays me.  I betray myself.   

I have a goal.  I have to take care of myself.  I have to prepare to take care of myself.  I am making lists, and checking them twice, that wilL lead me to that end.  It doesn’t feel good, nonetheless.  I am doing little to not feel.  I am tending to not feel the positives. 

I can not live under this stress any longer.  It is going to do me in.  My health is going to suffer.  I am too old to not take care of things for myself.  I have support.  I have understanding.  I know what I need to do and others do too.  It has built up and built up and I can no longer deal with it without being ill.  I have anti-anxiety medications I can take when needed.  I do not want to need to use it.  Life is handing me many reasons too.  I am still an “I can do it” but am losing some of the impetus. I am moving into experiences where I can finally learn how to stand up for myself in good ways. 

This year, I am gathering up courage in order to set some good boundaries in a good way.  I have to learn to stop the emotional build-up and turn it into quiet determination.  I turn to arting, again, with COURAGE in its many expressions going to show up a I consciously build up my confidence at a deeper level. 

© Carol Desjarlais 1.9.25

 


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