Who’s in Charge Here?

I’ve spent the past few weeks helping Teri’s parents with their new home.  It’s been a labor of love (yet some days it felt more like labor than love).  I’ve had a few late nights where I just wanted to go home and chill.  Yet the work wasn't going to get done unless we stayed the course - so home and chill time had to wait. 

Along the way I have noticed that I’ve done very little to prepare for the ‘aging parent’ season.  Both Teri and my parents are still alive and they moved over to live near us years ago.  To be sure, we’ve been noticing the pace of things slowing for them and have been watching the health and cognitive change come.  For the most part things seemed to have seemed a slow decline.  Yet helping with the house accentuated the reality of things – and, personally, I found it to be a bit disorienting.  

Small things needed to be done, things that used to come easy, had become bigger challenges. 

I suppose that will be me one day, trying to remember how to do something that used to come naturally.  One thing I have noticed in spades along the course of this little house-fix-up project; my mother and father-in-law are some of the most grateful folks you’d ever want to meet.  Gratitude certainly goes a long way!

The renovation project has had me thinking about some work-related matters – things I already know but don’t think about with frequency sometimes.  You see, the renovation wasn’t supposed to be ‘my job’ to do, yet I found myself being the overseer of just about everything because, well, they needed me to ‘drive the bus’.  I was in charge of something I didn’t sign up to have charge over.  At first I resisted, but then I just decided to have a good attitude and help out (simple version).

I didn’t really have a choice about being in charge of that little work project – but I was in charge of my attitude about it.  I was in charge of how I thought about things.

Sometimes we feel out of control.  Feeling out of control is a really tough time to make good decisions.  Better stated, it’s rarely a good time to make decisions.

You know what worked best to take charge of my thoughts and attitude along the way during this HGTV-wannabe past few weeks?  I’d grab a glass of water and walk out on the back deck and just slowly drink the water.  

For me – water both symbolizes and actualizes my #1 need in life.  Ask your doctor or hop on the web and you’ll see – water is our #1 need.  So, I’d pour myself a glass of water and go stand on the deck, drink it down and receive the reminder that I was taking into my body the #1 thing that I need.  I still had stuff to figure out or work through.  But the act of doing it positioned me better and I figured out a few things out there on the deck. 

We are in charge of deciding that we need to take a break and to get in the right state of mind again.  We are in charge of deciding if we’re going to drink pure water or supplemented water (you know the kind – the sugary or caffeinated or carbonated or hoppy or fermented or distilled…).  We are in charge – and “it” just might be a bit less complicated than it seems on the surface.

Help is nearer than you might be imagining.  Reach out if you need a hand – again, help is near.

Charging forward with you today!  Be encouraged – stay focused – satisfy your thirst for life well!