“It's not hard to decide what you want your life to be about. What's hard, she said, is figuring out what you're willing to give up in order to do the things you really care about.”*
― Shauna Niequist, Bittersweet: Thoughts on Change, Grace, and Learning the Hard Way**
A succinct description of the dilemma faced by invisibly disabled people making tough choices.
Do I do this - or that?
My apologies to my readers this week. It’s time to do a post: that’s a large part of what my life’s about at this point. Another large part of my life is my family. My granddaughter’s graduating high school in 4 days, and I find myself in a difficult quandary. I decided to make her a scrapbook (using software) which isn’t finished yet due to technical difficulties and unexpected physical challenges.
So, what do I do now? Not finish her scrapbook on time, or skip writing this post? You can see, her gift won out (and I wrote a shortened post). Hence, my apologies for this abbreviated post.
As a physically challenged person, you may face many such tough choices. Often, time becomes critical in the decision-making process. Knowing yourself, your abilities, and what’s really important to you can shorten that process. It's all about invisibly disabled people making tough choices. That's us.
5 Areas to Consider
Look beyond the moment
- In my case, several years down the road what will be remembered? This post? Or her scrapbook?
Evaluate a “head choice” versus a “heart choice”
- Easy call. Head choice: skip the post. Heart choice: make my granddaughter’s day. Compromise: do a shortened version.
Consider if you could you survive if disappointed.
- Well . . . Yes. Either way. This is not a life and death - or even quality of life - issue.
Respect the effect and influence of others
- This doesn’t seem that applicable to my choices right now, but could be foundational in other situations.
Go with what you know
- I know how to make the scrapbook pages - at least if the software would work right (!) - and I know doing a full article takes lots of time. I know, too, she only graduates once, and she loves scrapbooks. So, that is what I chose.
Now, to see if I can really finish it in time.
