You CAN do this.

You ever wake up and think, “Man, I don’t know if I can do this anymore”? This is me. Today. I’m just tired, y’all. After the past month of holiday anxiety and depression, I got a two-day reprieve. Two days of not waking up feeling like I was running a marathon on the inside. I also slept a lot. I think I just needed those days to breathe and do nothing. So, I did. And then today hit me. Like the thunderstorm that was happening outside my window.

I curled up with my dog for a few minutes and listened to the storm. Then I got up. The good news is, the anxiety let up a lot as I was doing my normal morning stuff. The bad news is, I thought after the holidays I wouldn’t be dealing with this dumb stuff anymore. So I’m in a new place of being unsure. But I can’t let that dictate how my life will be lived. Even if it scares the p00pies out of me to think this anxiety might become my new closest friend.

And then I thought about all the people (YOU) out there living in this same unchosen situation as me. Whose lives have been upended and turned inside out by circumstances beyond our control. Sometimes beyond our imagination. And we’re all stuck here. In these awful boats full of holes, sinking into an uneasy sea full of all the terrible things that are trying to drown us. Surrounded, maybe, by well-meaning people who don’t understand how to help us plug the holes.

Because in this situation, it takes one to know one. So, from one like you (ME), I’m here to help. And I offer you hope from a place where I often can’t see it, but it is very much always there.

Through anxiety that makes it feel like your heart will explode.
Through gut wrenching sobs that seem to leak all the life out of you.
Through brain fog and confusion that fill you with fear.
Through days where you don’t feel anything at all.
Through despair of life.

THERE IS HOPE. So much of it.

You just have to keep going, even on days when you’re not sure if you can.

The beauty that awaits us out there beyond what we can see now is worth it. The people that need us to be here are worth it. We (YOU and ME) are worth it. And who knows? Maybe we can be the light in someone else’s darkness that keeps them from giving up. And THAT, to me, is worth whatever pain and suffering I have to keep walking through.

Praying for hope, and strength for us.

We’re all in this together.
We can do this.
We will be okay.

Braundi