I want you to know how great of a job you are doing.

Seriously.

Whether you know it or not, you are a role model in your community. In your family, among your friends, the stranger who caught you out of the corner of their eye loading groceries into the trunk after a long day at work knows it. The guy who drives the facility shuttle bus knows what a great job you are doing when you show up at your parent’s assisted living community to drop off the new hearing aids that they don’t bother to wear anyway. The doctor knows it when you comfort your loved one when the bad news comes and squeeze them so hard when the news is good.

The social worker knows what a great job you’re doing when she authorized the adoption paperwork.

The nurse knows what a great job you are doing when you terminated the pregnancy.

Your kid’s teacher knows when that book report they turned in included a few words that weren’t exactly third-grade vocabulary.

Your garbage truck driver knows how great of a job you do when those bins are lined up every Friday away from parked cars and easy to access.

Your trainer at the gym knows how great of a job you are doing when you hit that 13th rep after stalling out at 12 for a month, and the Taco Bell kid is probably a punk ass, but he thinks you’re cool after seeing you a few times a week during this time of year.

Whether you know it or not, nobody else could do what you do. Holding it together, and sometimes not, but what can you do?! Do you see it around here?!

The trick to making it through this whole thing is reminding ourselves that two contradictory things are true at once.

None of us are uniquely special in hardship. Distress, pain, loss, depression, uncertainty, sorrow, anger, it’s a dime a dozen with us people.

And.

Each person you meet, including yourself, is the most unique, precious, beloved, worthy, and valued object in this entire plane of existence.

You’re doing a great job.

Keep it up.

I see you.

This blog post was published by Glioblastology on August 14, 2024. It is republished with permission.