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Reality Check
I am not a fan of ‘it can always be worse,’ but it is a useful reframe from time to time. Sometimes, we just need a reality check. For example, one of my peers, a mentor, probably the smartest soul I ever had befriend me, used crutches all his life. Due to a fall, he now has even less mobility and spends his time, even sleeps, in his lift chair. He had zero flexibility in his legs. When I met him six years ago, it would take him precisely 3 and half minutes to go from his office to the door to collect a client. It would take him that long to come back, plus time to get situated, put away the crutches, and finally… “So, what brings you in today…”
Invariably, people would say some variance of, “I am kind of embarrassed. I only thought I had a problem.”
That peer would sometimes get some of the angriest, hardest clients going into his office, and they would come out quiet, humbled- and better than when they went in. Every now and then, there were folks that were too impatient and they got shuffled to someone else. And that isn’t a disparagement, sometimes when we struggle- it’s hard to slow our minds down.
My Best Friend
He died of brain cancer. He went from a bright, I can fix and do anything, to being bed ridden for six months, unable to speak coherently due to aphasia…
