Prioritize

I recently received an email from a dear friend of mine. Many years ago, her son suffered a traumatic brain injury, a result of a 4-wheeling accident. His story is completely miraculous and I have become a better person for knowing this family since I was a little girl. I had such respect and love for her before the accident, but watching her over the years has been so encouraging and inspiring. I share a part of her email to me (my own emphasis added). What she wrote was nothing new, but I think she knew I needed this reminder. Maybe we all could use it...

"[Being] a mother [or grandmother, father, friend, sibling, etc] capable of receiving all kinds of inspiration and now trying to figure out how to channel it all and then prioritize can be such a great challenge in and of itself. I remember there was time in our family's life after Tim's accident...we were quite overwhelmed with so many things. A wise bishop once shared [with us] when we were struggling, and he told us that we need to prioritize those things that are important to ourselves and our family. It seems like simple advice but I have never forgotten it. When we have too much going on we stop and we talk and we try to prioritize. Some things can wait and some things cannot. That is what [we all] should do....[...] know that your family is number one and of course you need to consider yourself too."


There seems to always be that looming feeling of knowing there is more I can do. Sometimes it motivates me, but other times it haunts me. (Can I never do enough?) Let us all remember to take time to step back, look at our individual families and situations, and prioritize according to our individual needs, not forgetting that we need time for ourselves as well in order to be strong enough to carry a bit of a load from day to day.

Communicate with our partners in crime (ummm, "crime" is figurative here -- I hope that's understood) so we can be healthy, strong, and encouraged through our days and weeks. Maybe we need to change our priorities a bit to reflect a particular situation in our life. Maybe we're just feeling worn out, so we may need to change our priorities so we can re-energize and get back on track.

There have definitely been times in our life when I have put Theratogs, AFOs, etc. on the back burner for a few days or a week or two so I could refill my own needs that had been neglected, recenter, and get back into the swing of things.

I really believe as we step back and re-evaluate from time to time, we will continue to be a strong force for good for our children.