BITTER OR BETTER?

Thanksgiving is here and it is one of my favorite holidays. I love this time of year because I get to focus on what’s really important to me, my family and friends and this year is special because my oldest son will come home from college (and I miss him like crazy). It doesn’t matter if the turkey is perfect or the mashed potatoes are fluffy or if the gravy is too thick. It just matters that we are all together hanging around our big old table with everyone laughing, talking and teasing each other. It’s a time to let things of the past year roll under the table and be forgotten. I ask myself this same question every year right around Thanksgiving, will you become a bitter lady or a better lady this year?

 

Traditions and times change and sometimes that is hard for our family. This year we will celebrate Thanksgiving without my beloved mother-in-law and we will do it a little differently than we usually do. We are having a big breakfast that my sister-in-law is hosting with everyone and then we will all go our separate ways. It is a break from tradition, but one thing my mother-in-law shared with me before she passed away was that she hoped for peace for all of her children and their families. Peace to live and be without so much baggage from our past hanging around. She felt we wasted so much time and energy with all these past mind sets and it destroyed our opportunity for today and the future. She wanted us to live and be free to be what we were called to be. She was a good woman and I miss her so much. Anyway, this Thanksgiving, we will make new traditions, and we will be thankful for all the times we had together with her, and I will be forever grateful to her for the gift of her son to me.

 

As a physical therapist I see people everyday with physical challenges and disabilities, with terminal illnesses and loss of loved ones as a result. They truly have experienced a break from tradition and often their lives are never the same. It can be daunting to family to have loved ones sick and in pain everyday and it affects the whole family system. Family’s can often become torn apart from illness and devastating injuries. Divorce rates escalate and relationships are destroyed. The physical trauma from injuries can quickly turn the mind body connection upside down. What do we do?

 

Physical health issues happen everyday. Someone you love just gets diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, fibromyalgia, a mini stroke, breast cancer or heart disease and suddenly your life, as you know it is over. Do we give in to the despair or do we vow to take this challenge and let it makes us better? Such choices. Such a fight. What a battle. You must stand up and take charge and not let the physical challenges destroy who you are.

 

Come to physical therapy where we can help you integrate this physical challenge into your life. Education and your whole family understanding this physical change is the first step in wellness. Don’t ever give up on your physical health. As physical therapists we get it, we have been there. We know what to do. Will you be bitter or better? Only you can decide.

 

Sheree DiBiase, PT, and her staff can be reached at Lake City Physical Therapy (208) 667-1988, where we hope to grow better and not bitter from life’s challenges. Please join us from 5:30-8 p.m. Dec. 12 for our Christmas Health and Wellness Bazaar.