No doubt about it, the last 12 months have not been easy. There is COVID-19, isolation, businesses closing, social unrest, maybe the loss of something – or someone – dear to us, and on a global level, the pandemic is breaking records almost every day. On top of all this, you are living with COPD!
Wow, that’s a lot. A whole lot. But before we go on, I just want to remind you that here at the Wednesday Check in we don’t come to dwell on the negatives in our own lives or bad things happening around us. Rather, we are here to share ideas in order to help ourselves – and each other – with things that affect us emotionally.
So, how do we cope? Well, it helps to know that there is now a COVID-19 vaccine. But it takes a while to vaccinate so many people, and even with that, we’re not out of the woods. Some of us may feel sometimes like we're hanging on by a thread – a very thin thread. So, what do we do and what do we say in those moments when we feel that way?
I once wrote the story of a man who had very severe silicosis, a lung disease that can be caused by coal mining. As his disease progressed, it was left to his wife, Susan, to take total care of him and all the household responsibilities as well as make a monthly four-hour drive through the mountains to take her husband to see his pulmonary doctor. I think often of them and their story and what Susan told me about getting through their darkest time. She said, “I’ve got strong shoulders. Whenever something bad happens, I figure God must have found another empty spot on my shoulders.”
What’s your “go to” when you’re feeling down? Is there something… a phrase, a verse, a motto, that’s always helped you make it through? It might be something a wise family member always said, a verse from the Bible or other spiritual source, a poem, a song, or something you came up with yourself. Whatever has helped you might help us too when we’re just hanging on.
What helps you make it through? I look forward to hearing from you!