We’re Getting There
Recently, I have found myself thinking about self care.
I am a really good anticipator, therefore a professional dreader/worrier. Our recent move was more stressful to me, for the most part, before we moved.
I am beginning to meet potential clients and to develop a caseload. There are people who come to the office, and people who meet by tele-therapy. I have a core group of office mates with skills different from my own, and I actually drove somewhere today without using my GPS
My downtime during the past year has certainly been different from previous years.
As a teen, and even before then, I was as active as I could be.
In fact, when I was in 5th grade, my teacher (Mrs. Garmin), took me aside and told me I was in too many activities. She told me I needed to pick either sports, music, or academics to focus on outside to school.
I promptly went and ‘told on’ her to my parents. I pride myself on being pseudo-good at many things, and well practiced at the things that are most difficult for me.
I could not believe that she would even think to tell me to give up one of my activities, which included after school sports, Girl Scouts, band, before school choir, basketball when it was in season, swimming in the summer, guitar classes before school, high ability classes, and spending as much time as possible with my core group of friends.
In high school, I kept up my pace. I remember during my senior year, going from tennis practice to musical rehearsal every night during the Spring semester. I dreamed one night that I had finished my reading assignment (Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities).
I woke up, realizing I had fallen asleep with the book on my lap, and had not read a page of it. Needless to say, I was quite disappointed.
Through it all, through Indiana University Marching Hundred and Pep Band, the University of Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Fishers, Noblesville, and now Mckinney, Texas; I kept my favorite stuffed animal ‘Muffy’.
As we were moving to Texas, my husband pointed out we still have ‘that creepy dog you always want to keep’. He took it out of the box, and set it somewhere else in the garage (nothing else from that box made the cut that day).
I put it into a different tote, and found it the other day as we still work to conclude the endless task of unpacking.
I thought about how happy I had been, as a child, holding that dog as I slept.
I remembered wanting to have it with me when I fell asleep at my Grandma’s house, where I spent a lot of time.
I put it through the washer, and it looks quite a bit different than it did a couple of days ago, when it had spent the last 13 years in the garage in Noblesville.
It makes me think though. It makes me think about how important it is to slow down a bit.
Without the time we have taken to unpack our boxes, I wouldn’t have re-discovered old dirty Muffy. If we had a bump out in our garage in our new house, like we had in our house in Noblesville, we probably wouldn’t have been going through each box so carefully.
It has been really interesting going through some boxes that have basically stayed packed since we began our journey together, 25 years ago.
Things that I love are: looking at water, seeing flowers bloom, swimming, and processing people and events I am a part of.
I also love watching mindless television (Hello, Big Brother), getting pedicures, and talking endlessly about nothing.
With a big life event, like moving to a new state, we have an opportunity to re-invent ourselves in some ways. I’ll never be seen as ‘the middle Dollens kid’ here in McKinney. I’m Terri Parke, from Indiana.
A Midwesterner
I encourage you to think about things you love.
Now I encourage you to take some time to fit them into your schedule. My 5th grade self did a great job of helping me learn to get and stay busy.
My 48 year old self says being busy is great, but so is enjoying the ride during the not so busy times.
I hope you take the time to do something you love today.
Or at least take a break from something you like a little less.
Happy Friday!
Parke Counseling and Artistry 