I have been “busy” but also decided to be “unplugged” this Memorial Day Weekend.

Why?

Well, as much as I love social media (and I really do) it can be all-consuming. It can be the constant itch to check to see who looked at your stuff, who commented on your stuff and whose stuff you can see and love…

And I do love it — it is a lifeline for me to connect with so many women (and men) who have been through cancer or are going through cancer or love someone going through cancer, whatever their story may be…

I love sharing my story but have had issues making time for blogging because I have been go go go on the nonprofit me (see more here) but again, I am drawn back to writing my secrets, my worries and letting them go here…

Despite “disconnecting” this weekend (I did pop on and off here and there) I did spend time redesigning my website and sharing a little bit about the newest book I wrote ​(a workbook to get back to work after cancer — learn more about my books for #careeraftercancer here — Books & Workbooks). Oh and here I am on Sunday posting to my blog — but this is my therapy, my time to be alone with my thoughts.

And my thoughts are jumbled these last few days. I saw a family member who had been estranged and I was not happy with what I saw and it sent me for a loop — to the point that I had to go to bed like immediately after the visit.

That is the real crazy thing about life after cancer — you feel things more or maybe it is just that you admit things more to yourself — I have trouble figuring out which it is for me. I find myself being tired and going to rest — I know I was always tired but I never went to rest. I am learning how to say, “No” and I say it a lot. I am learning to let go and letting things just fall where they will instead of being the control freak, mom of ALL I surveyed that I was…

That is just it, you know — as a mom, you always have people to take care of — but they are usually little people and then as they grow your parenting changes with their needs and their wants or whatever. I know that I was not changing or letting go until I got cancer — but despite that diagnosis and the healing from the treatments and so on and so forth, I still have this “inkling” to parent the big people I was parenting — and there were a lot of them.

I was faced with something yesterday that normally, I would then have taken control and tried to fix and or manage the people around it to do it and how to do it and yes, controlling is something I am … Instead, I recognized how much it bothered me, I respected that feeling but I unwrapped my grip on trying to fix it to get it better or to take it on myself.

In doing that, I recognized that my priority, my responsibility, is to my own health and the health and well being of those I am only responsible for — my kids and by default my husband, too. I do not like to group him in with the kids in a bad way but he is in ways like a kid — he is trusting and in need of direction lol …

So is it just me, or do you guys too find that things you once did or tackled or took on are now as impossible as flying? I look back at what I used to do, like

  • how I never went to bed until everyone in my house was asleep
  • how I managed the lives of me and my family to precision detail
  • how I managed to work part time / full time / as entrepreneur and teacher and more all while just smiling and thinking about inside how much I was going crazy or how much anxiety I had or how much I feared.

Now, I know I can only handle so much and I pick my battles — because I feel things harder now — if my husband and I have an argument, it bothers me so deeply — trust our entire marriage was an argument before and it never stopped me … now, I have to make things right — or work with him instead of around him to get things together done instead of always being a lone wolf…

If I argue or disagree with someone else, instead of being like “Basta” and cutting them out, I now try to find the middle ground. I have learned I guess how short life is and how I want to live it — on my terms. I do not in any way let people walk all over me — the exact opposite, in fact — in that I do not walk all over myself anymore. I recognize that I am a person who has to be respected and cared for and loved by ME first and foremost.

Anyone else with me? This is what I do (and think about) in the time between…