A Matter of Perspective

Some days I feel old and other days I feel even older. I’m not complaining—getting older certainly beats the alternative—I’m just saying, I wish I had taken better care of myself when I was younger and especially since I graduated from college.

I can almost pinpoint the time when I stopped taking better care of myself. I remember with somewhat foggy clarity (is that a thing?) stepping on the scale and seeing that I weighed almost 200 pounds.

There was no telling myself that it was just muscle. When I was younger, I could use that excuse for weighing 160 because I was very strong and muscular. However, at 25, I was not doing much in the way of exercise and I had foolishly started smoking (during my senior year in college when I really should have “known” better).

I was living in the Twin Cities and it was often a lot easier to go out to a restaurant to eat than it was to cook. I never really walked anywhere except if it was to walk from upstairs to downstairs at my place of employment.

Well, anyway, fast forward a few years and here I am—235 pounds and starting to work out again. I’m attempting to do a lot of things to improve my health—physical and mental.

A lot has been happening. I’m not able to say a lot at this time, but once it is resolved I will share more freely. Those who know me in person, already know some of the stuff that has been taking place over the past three-four years.

But I’m not here to talk about being old or fat or stressed or even about being tired. I think we are all feeling some of those things.

I am here to tell you that YOU are a beautiful person. YOU are worth it. YOU are not a waste of space. YOU have value. YOU are important and no matter what you are going through I pray that YOU will reach out if you need encouragement.

You don’t have to reach out to me, but to someone. A lifeline can be a lot of different things and come from a lot of different people. I just want to encourage you to never give up. If you don’t feel like you have anyone to talk to: please call 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Please.

I don’t know if things will look better tomorrow or next week. But if you keep going you can build a resilience that will make you see the brighter side in any situation.

I know this time of year can be especially difficult, but I implore you to please keep giving life a chance.