It is hard for me to believe that Christmas is only a few days
away. I feel like a broken record when I
keep saying where did 2016 go? For me
this year was a great year with so much to be thankful for. Each month just passed quickly as each day
seemed to be “jam packed” with a schedule full of something from work, school,
church events, dance, doctor appointments, birthday parties, sporting events,
etc. I personally hope that 2017 doesn’t fly as quickly as this year has.
There was a day a few weeks ago, I went on a run. Well I run pretty much every day, but this
day was different because it was about 20 degrees out and extremely windy. The wind was not my friend that day; it just beat
me down. I was running into the wind and
it kept pushing me back. At one point,
it almost pushed me into a car, I had to throw myself a little to the left
almost onto a bank. As the wind, would
blow I would have to turn my head to the side or it would take my breath
away. There were also times that as I
was progressing up the hills the wind would sort-of lift me as I lifted my feet;
it was crazy!
For part of my run, I veered off the main road onto a trail and I
saw the wind had knocked down a tree limb.
I normally wouldn’t take pictures of this; but this day it made
me stop and think. There are so many
things in our lives that we wrestle with: relationships, jobs, health issues, etc. Do we let those issues cover our path and
stop us dead in our tracks and retreat, or do we press forward and pick up each
of those broken limbs and clear our pathway?
I chose to pick up all the pieces and continue with my run.
Some of you may know about my chronic migraines. I have always suffered with migraines, ever
since I was a child but since my hysterectomy and chemo treatments they have
been relentless. We are unsure why, I
have been to specialists, and through countless testing, as well as different
medications including Botox injections, without much success. I would say out of a month, I may go 3-5 days
headache free. I may not always have the
pounding or throbbing pain; sometimes I just have the other symptoms that go
along with migraines ex. Nausea the vision issues, high pitched ringing in the
ears, dizziness, lightheadedness, etc.
I am pretty much exhausted all the time and in a “BRAIN FOG” … There are
times I feel like I can’t remember anything because I have a hard time
concentrating. But because I have these
headaches constantly, I must push on, I can’t crawl in a dark cold room (which
would be great). I must smile and act as
if everything is fine. I also have been
still having issues with some pelvic pain that just won’t go away…
There are times I just get to a point that I just cry, “WHY?!?!”
So why am I telling you all this? To pity me? NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just to say, that sometimes even when things
are hard you still should smile and push forward. Even when you don’t want to! That wind pushes hard and harder; but
sometimes, you have to be stubborn and push back harder.
Then as I was running near the water I took this video of the
waves and noticed that all the leaves were stuck floating in the corner. The
sound of the wind was relentless.
It made me think that if I am not careful, I can be like that,
stuck in a rut of discouragement, depression, just being a constant “Debbie
Downer”, dwelling on the bad; floating in the corner not able to leave, allowing
the wind and the waves to beat us against the shore. Trust me, it is much easier said than
done. It is easy to just complain about
the situation that you are in and to want to give up rather than focus on the good. Just know that you are not alone.
I am not giving up, God healed me of the cancer! I am just waiting patiently now for the other
pain to be healed but I have faith and going to keep smiling because I don’t
want to get stuck in that “rut”…
Psalm 59:17 (NET) You are my source of strength! I will sing praises to you! For God is my
refuge, the God who loves me.
