A quick weight update: I’m very close to being in new territory. Stay tuned!
Right smack between Christmas and New Year’s Day, the unexpected happened.
On the way to shop at a Walmart in the town where he works, my husband collided with a commercial van that was attempting to cross traffic in a busy location. He had no time to stop; and in that split second, a world of things changed.
Surprise Possum in downtown Fort Smith, Arkansas
While he was fortunate to walk away from the accident, he’s been dealing with some physical repercussions and working through them. Our SUV, however, was a total loss — and worse, the claims management company for the major corporation has been troublesome. Just about everything that could go wrong, did; almost a month later, we are still working on being compensated for our losses, and just managed to replace our vehicle this week.
Just when I was counting on a quiet day or two after seemingly nonstop paperwork and research, my dog developed a health problem. An expensive trip to the vet for emergency surgery and a dopey dog in recovery sucked that hope for a quiet day right down the drain.
I’m sure you’ve had your trials and tribulations over the past weeks, too. Maybe things haven’t been all that perfect.
But we have to expect the unexpected — and we have to remember one thing: when we face these changes, we will come out the other side. Perhaps changed in some way, but we will survive.
The last few weeks have been pretty stressful around here. Who expects to get in a car accident? Who expects their dog, their child, themselves to get sick? Who knows what trouble awaits right around the corner? Not many of us, but few of us escape the challenges of everyday life, whether they’re something small or something a bit more earth-shattering. While fearing them is natural, fearing them to the point of holding ourselves back hurts no one but us.
One of the more valuable lessons I’ve learned while losing weight has been a better ability to deal with the unexpected. I don’t freak out if I can’t eat the way I prefer. I have stopped punishing myself for the occasional transgression. I have ceased reacting to a small deviation by thinking screw it, eat all the things! I have had to learn infinite patience because the ways of my body are not always predictable. I have to stay the course, regardless of what’s going on in my head.
In the course of daily life, stuff happens. Days are rarely perfect; we can only attempt to make them as close as possible and hope that the cumulative effect is good. Being at peace with not only working through the occasional bump in the road but the acceptance that this process is not a race has had a calming effect. Because I know, when I look back at times like these past few weeks from the vantage point of passing time, it’ll look more like a hiccup than a Heimlich maneuver.
The good at the end of this is that my husband continues to survive, we’re back on the road to normalcy, and my favorite dog in the whole world is back to being a happy girl, again.
And me? The more I deal with the surprises life hands me, the more I surprise myself.