The choice is yours...

It has been a week now since most of our worlds have come to a screeching halt or drastically changed.   If I am being honest, I have never been so unsure of not just my life but life in general.  I constantly must remind myself that yes this is a huge game changer, but we will get through this. 

At the end of the day I still find myself angry.  This past week I tried blaming the world and everything going on it.  But that truly is not it.  I am sure many of you are asking yourself how is it not that?  Yes it has a small roll in everything.  But it isn’t it really all it… 

What this last week is showing me and teaching me is how much I have taken for granted over the years.  As we approach April and Easter I would give anything for one more holiday with our mom.  Last Easter I was exhausted.   My sisters at the time had no idea how many times our mom had been in and out of the hospital.  Our parents were going through the unthinkable after 45 years together.  And our mom was mad.  She was hurt.  She was broken.  She decided at that time that she didn’t want my dad or sisters to know about her health.  Myself and her siblings were told over and over not tell anyone.   Even though we truly needed to tell them.

By the time Easter was approaching I was so mentally and physically exhausted.  My Aunt and Uncle told me to take the boys to the beach before my best friend and her family moved back.   So we headed to Destin for a very short and much needed get away.  Yes we needed it.  And yes we talked to her every day on the phone.  But looking back.  I would give anything to be sitting next to her bed watching NASCAR listening to her cuss out the drivers.   Trust me if you knew our mother she had the mouth of a sailor.   And I would give anything for those moments. 

Is this enough though to make me angry every day?  No…  It truly is not.  Instead I am learning from it all.  As we all navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic I hope everyone remembers to chose joy over hate.  To chose love over anger.  To chose to continue to have this family time that took a deadly disease for most of us to do.  

I read a quote yesterday.  “You can either get bitter or you get better.  It’s that simple.  You either take what has been dealt to you and allow it to make you a better person, or you allow it to tear you down.  The choice does not belong to fate, it belongs to you.” – Josh Shipp 

The choice is ours!  We can allow these times to make us bitter and angry or we can use these moments to help make us better!  Better employees…. Better parents…. Better friends…  Better children… Better people….

The choice is ours….  The choice is yours!