To Do or Not To Do........

The week of July 4th is always a very busy time around our house.  Three of our four boys have their birthday and with the holiday it gets a little crazy.  I do love it though!  The problem arises each year when I try to do way too  much and don't listen to the signals that trouble is coming.  None of us want to believe that we can't - I remember my Daddy saying "Can't never could" to me when I was little to discourage my whining and saying "I can't" which I often did when faced with new things.

The odd thing about chronic illnesses is that most of us continue to try to do things we know we cannot and we refuse to accept our limitations.  That makes life difficult for us and our friends and families.  But.....there is a fine balance here - we still have to try and push to do whatever we still can because if we completely give up we won't be able to.  So - each holiday, birthday, event, etc. we have to reassess what we can do on this day, this year, this particular time and try to make the best decisions.  Not always easy and I tend to err on the do way to much side and pay for it later.  I am told this is typical for those with these types of diseases.  Someone in a support group I belonged to once told me that if you don't want to do anything and don't believe you can, you are more than likely depressed----but when you want to do so much and try but can't, it is more likely you are physically ill - I believe this to be true.

So this year I did and I am glad that I did and we had a wonderful day to celebrate the 4th as well as three birthdays in our family - all together.  By some standards, not a big celebration but wonderful all the same.  At the end of the day, I felt good about the efforts I was able to make and I believe in pushing myself and fighting because "can't never could".....