It’s that time of year! It’s time for our mailboxes, inboxes and text messages to be flooded with sale brochures, catalogs and self-help advice. Everyone I know is getting messages that tell us how to “survive” the holidays, how to manage family relationships (including dinner with “that Uncle who is on the opposite side of the political spectrum from you”), how to “take time for yourself”, and on and on and on. Well, here’s one more piece of advice. But I hope this advice is different.
My advice for getting through the holidays physically, emotionally and psychologically intact is: Ignore all the advice! Now, that little insight may cause you to stop reading and click away right now, but if you stick with me, I hope I can share a small helpful hint.
When I first sustained my spinal cord injury, I was scared, depressed and full of dread. I lay in a hospital bed, paralyzed from the chest down, unable to see my future. Dozens of times a day, my husband and I would say to each other “I don’t know.” That seemed to apply to every aspect of our lives: We didn’t know how long I would be in the hospital. We didn’t know how, or if, I would ever walk again, or even regain sensation. We didn’t know where to find help.