Enough

I read this today and thought that it sounded so familiar.  Any time I look at my goals, they're always just to be "enough."  Enough of a mother, enough of a woman, enough of a person, on and on and on.

It was comforting to see that someone else addressed it too, and in such an elegant way.

One of my thoughts about the article as I read it was that chronic illness warriors tend to have different standards of "enough" than others do.  A normal person's every-day normal functions are a huge accomplishment for chronic illness warriors.  

On good days, my "enough" can include working at my job, grocery shopping, prolonged walking, etc.  But on a bad day, I consider it a victory to get out of the bed at all.  It's amazing if I can make it to the bathroom or kitchen to get items to care for my illness flare.  

My challenges are different than other chronic illness warriors.  Some would consider standing a victory.  Others would consider not having a migraine (or less of one) a great day.  And others would be over the moon if they could simply wear their shoes without pain, or their wedding rings without having knuckle swelling issues to combat.

Anyway, just putting this out there to know that someone else out there is thinking that mediocre is still "enough" and that's okay.

Do people change?

One of the things I'd like to do more of this year would be to post at least one blog per month.  In an effort to do this, I've created an entire board on pintrest to help me.  I'm going to answer some of the January questions on that board over the next few days.

One of the first questions I want to write about is "Do you think people change?"

When I was younger, I would have answered with a resounding "no."  But, I feel this is a more complicated question than it seems.  When originally asked that question it's normally in reference to "does a leopard change his/her spots" type of question.  But it's really not as shallow as it first seems.

One of my favorite quotes is by Alvin Toffler "Change is not merely necessary to life - it is life."

Change: by Alvin Toffler

This holds true on both a broader scale as well as a more personal one.  Change is everything.  Change is all.  It is ambivalent and apathetic - neither good nor bad.  It simply is.  Therefore, to truly live, we are constantly changing.

What mustn't change is our inner core of being.  We can be open to experience and change, but you must still have a sense of self.  You must remain true to your being.  No one knows this better than parents.  You have created this being that is so much like you, and so dissimilar.  And often, when you have very small children, you tend to lose yourself in them.

So, simply put - do people change:  yes.  All the time.  Even by trying not to change, the influences around them as well as the information that they are exposed to, are constantly changing.  And thus, their perceptions, ideas, and thoughts are also in a constant state of fluctuation.