After reading today’s scriptures, Brian was casually talking about how we are living. It really struck a chord with me for multiple reasons, which I’ll talk about in a minute.

“At the end of the day we’re trying to figure out how to live. Right? And we’re trying to figure out how to live right. How to make this work. We go thru life so blinded that we rarely sit down and go: How am I actually navigating here? Because we navigate by reaction so often. It’s like life is flying at us and we’re just reacting to it. What if it was the other way around? The bible certainly teaches us about that. ~ Brian Hardin – DAB

So, I just returned from Mississippi after working remote for two weeks and visiting my daughter, who resides in a long-term care facility. Most know she’s 28 years old. Not only does she have cerebral palsy and profound mental retardation, she’s autistic, almost completely blind and does not walk anymore because COVID was MORE IMPORTANT than working with residents on other critical needs! Do you think this mama is a tiny bit angry and heart broken right now? The recent yearly plan of care has her at a 13-month-old age level. She used to walk before the pandemic! Would you be a little angry right now if you were in my shoes? Something to think about….

Quite honestly though, that is not what struck a chord with me this morning. What touched me in my soul was my own struggle with overreacting. He said it himself: “We navigate by reaction so often.” Perhaps I’m not alone. Also, he mentioned how we go thru life SO BLINDED! How would you feel if you were able to see and then lost your vision? My daughter used to see and now lives in almost complete darkness. On top of that, she is unable to verbalize any fears she has. How frightening this must be for her!

Sunday night I didn’t sleep well. After two weeks away from the office, I had to catch up with a lot of work on Monday after traveling all day this past Friday. After work, I laid down at 6:30 p.m., utterly exhausted, and woke up at 3 a.m. still in my dress! Some days I worry about the brain fog. Is it my age, my health, grieving the recent loss of my mother, or all the above? We mess up in life and then others are so quick to point out our failures. They call it drama instead of looking at themselves and their own issues. It’s good to be reminded of what we need to fix. Iron sharpens iron. What are we doing here? Why can’t we give each other more grace? We’re all just trying to navigate this life. Let’s not be so hard on each other.