This is an important piece in my toolbox. More than ever. It’s always been of value. For many years, advocacy, writing, and poetry were my main distractions. These allowed me to be of use, contribute to society, and nudge my mind in other directions. Limiting focus on what I felt.

Laying up in my own thoughts certainly  didn’t help whether a moderate or severe flare or an acute injury and situation. Over thinking can be brutal.. Physical illness with chronic intractable pain is a vicious cycle of depression and anxiety rotating in and out of an already weakened state.

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It seems like I’ve already spent a lifetime trying to manage and adjust these cycles.

While my plate remains full, most of it has been replaced with better options. Like any plate it depends on what it contains.

At this point, I couldn’t add any more to it or it would spilleth over and that’s where taking on too much happens. It’s a crash waiting to happen for me.

My three main distractions have become routine.

1. Pray. For myself and others.

2. Church. I’ve attended, online, each Sunday for 16 months.

3. Spanish Lessons. 52 consecutive weeks. 415 days to be exact.

Each of these are from home. It’s hard for me to take on more. I do wish at times that I could. I’ve learned not to dwell on that.

All of our food is home cooked. That’s a daily do. I’m grateful to my husband for the day’s he either gives me a break or steps in when I’m physically unable to accomplish it. Our dogs also have to be fed, and cared for, and that’s daily of course.

Physically, I do as much as possible early mornings. By 2 p.m. I’m struggling . Dinner is generally ready and served by 3:30 p.m. unless my husband is delayed at work. By 5:00 p.m. I can hardly budge.

Shoutout to my crockpot for always having my back.

And to each of my grandson’s whom I love dearly. De’Mantai, Ezekiel, Zy’Aire, and my newest, Greyson, who’ll be born this month.