“Your dad said I should lose weight,” Mom says to me one day.
“What?!? That doesn’t sound like Dad…”
“I told him I had to either buy new clothes or lose weight. He said, ‘Lose weight…’”
I laughed. That DID sound like Dad, who was both frugal and funny. I recounted this story for Mom recently, and it got me thinking about crossroads.
Crossroads Moments
When you have to choose between buying new clothes or losing weight, it’s a crossroads moment. I’m not judging, mind you; not like I’ve never been there.
When the doctor says you’re prediabetic, or your blood pressure is out of control, or you’ve got one of the countless conditions where you need to lose weight for your wellbeing, it’s a crossroads moment.
Naturally, you can get these moments in any area of life… Crossroad moments tend to show up after pressure has been building for a while, maybe with a sizable helping of denial baked in. (Or maybe I’m projecting. I do that!)
But much as I may hate to admit it, I personally believe one doesn’t get to that point without a need to adjust course, lest you end up where you’re heading.
Eeek! Who wants THAT?!?
You too?
I am at one of those crossroad places, myself. As we speak, even.
To say I didn’t take great care of myself in the midst of the chaos that was my life this last year is an understatement. Even “backup caregiver and on-call crisis management” is more than you’d think. At least, it’s more than I thought!
“Health food blogger” or not, I hate getting doctored. It takes nothing short of a small act of God to land me into a medical office. Enter a small act of God via a broken leg, arriving promptly 12 hours after Dad passed.
So here I am, after an extended period high on the stress and low on the sleep, chock full of grief-induced comfort eating, (much too slowly) recovering from ortho surgery. Getting measured and tested and evaluated more than I’ve been in the last 20 years combined.
The conclusion so far: I’ve got some clean-up work to do. Not exactly a surprise, but I managed to feel a little surprised, nonetheless. So now I need to be a grown-up and look to correct course.
Maybe you’re somewhere similar in your journey: at a crossroads, too.
Now if I were sitting over here blithely saying, “Rah, rah, go! It’s nothing, just do it…!” I’d be one heck of a hypocrite, wouldn’t I?
I KNOW it’s hard some days. Depending on your life right now, maybe a lot of days. Usually not as hard as it seems before you get started without question, but that doesn’t negate the effort involved.
The question isn’t about whether or not it ever feels hard. Everything will feel hard sometimes, and not so hard other times. The rest of your life contributes to that. The real question is much simpler.
Where do we go from here?
Everybody is where they are at. Including me. I’ve always advocated for making peace with your now.
But from the now, we sculpt the future. What future are we creating?
That’s the thought I really want to leave you with. If you’re at a crossroads moment, choices matter. That doesn’t mean beating yourself up for being where you are, or demanding complete perfection, right here and right now.
At least for me, it means reaching towards improvement. In practical terms, I’ll be following up with the doc, cutting back comfort eating and putting more effort and planning into better-for-me-choices.
It won’t happen overnight. It happens one step at a time. But every step counts! Hope you’re taking some helpful steps out there, too, friends.
Peace Out.
~Dix (“Best I Can Today is Totally Good Enough”) Zen Goddess
p.s. Refresher Course? I’m pulling this book out… I’m grabbing my copy of TAKING OUT THE CARBAGE for renewed inspiration and encouragement. How about you? If you don’t have it, you can get a copy here.