Uncategorized

This is a repost written while a Therapist at Imagine Hope Counseling Group Do you need hope for the daily grind?Are you sleepwalking through your days? Are your responsibilities and commitments robbing your life of joy? This is your wake-up call to a "Fresh Brewed...

Every year when Martin Luther King Day comes around, I think about him. I think about what rights members of my family have because of what he and so many others sacrificed. It amazes me that it was just less than 50 years ago that this all took place. It seems so long ago to live a life where we were all so separate. And that was “normal”.  Although I am not naive enough to believe that prejudice no longer exists, I am grateful for how far we have come.  

So what’s the climate when you’re around? Is it nice, peaceful, and calm? Or is it chaotic, anxiety provoking, and full of turmoil? I think about this sometimes when I am around certain friends or family members. It’s like I prepare myself with my “raincoat” to shield myself from “the storm”. Know what I mean? Or I feel myself get anxious and try to gain some control when someone that is a tornado is coming thru.

Those of you that live in Indianapolis know that last week a major part of our interstate system on I465 was closed due to a tanker blowing up. Amazingly no one was killed and we are so grateful for that. For me, I was amazed what that little tiny area of the interstate meant to me once it was gone! I use that literally everyday either for work, activities at church, and my son’s school. Like everyone else, I had to find alternate ways to get home and hopefully find one no one else was thinking as well (yeah, right!).

Sometimes it can be painful watching clients make the changes they need to make to feel more healthy. It is always difficult to watch someone who struggles with people pleasing (and codependency) to start setting boundaries with people and get negative results. I know personally what that is like and it can feel defeating.  Unfortunately, many times you will get negative results because people are not used to you saying no or disagreeing with them.

My 95 year-old Grandfather passed away this past week. He lived a very healthy life but developed dementia the last couple of years. Eventually, he contracted a really bad infection that he suffered with for almost 3 weeks until it took his life.  The last couple of weeks my Mother and her sisters tried to make him comfortable, watching a strong man deteriorate.  He rarely opened his eyes and couldn’t communicate verbally. The night before he passed away he opened his eyes and my Mom could tell he wanted something.

I can’t believe almost 6 years ago I almost quit doing therapy. Those of you that are or have been my clients can pick yourselves up off the floor now! I say that because you all know how passionate I am about what I do and I LOVE being a therapist. But let me explain…

A few years ago, my husband was driving with my son, who at the time was 3 years-old. My husband saw a beautiful rainbow in the sky. He showed my son but he couldn’t see it. See, my son was too young to understand what a rainbow was. He kept asking him, “Where is it, Daddy? I can’t see it!” He wanted to see it so bad but he couldn’t, because he didn’t know what he was looking for. You sometimes have to really focus in the sky and know what you are looking for to see a rainbow.

The other day I had a major moment- one of those “oh my, where is time going” moments. I was playing with my boys at the park, feeling really tired and a bit over-heated. My 15 month-old wanted to climb up on the equipment that I wasn’t sure about. As I helped him, I suddenly flashed back to when my now almost 5 year-old was making the same attempts.