Crazy me… Here I sit in my study, periodically looking up at my calendar, now and then, to remind myself what the date is… I have a “zen art” calendar that has pictures and sayings on it, and I have tended to contemplate those sayings to help keep me on track. But in the past month, for some strange reason, I haven’t looked that closely at the saying on my calendar.
It is:
So whatever you do, just do it, without expecting anyone’s help. Don’t spoil your effort by seeking for shelter. Protect yourself and grow upright to the sky; that is all.
Yeah, that.
Just the answer I’ve needed over the past months, as I’ve been struggling with my brain’s limitations. Hidden disabilities… Invisible problems… Issues that I never had to worry about before… Difficulties others do not know I have and don’t expect me to have… Falling behind and forgetting to keep on top of myself and my activities and my state of mind and heart and soul, not to mention body… I’ve hassled and hassled over a lot of stuff, especially as it’s become more and more apparent to me.
I’ve been getting some help from folks along the way who supported me the best way they knew how — by offering me their sympathies and lending me their ear. And it’s helped to know my difficulties were not only in my head, and that someone else could recognize them and offer me encouragement — as well as correction.
But I had a revelation while I was out working in my yard this morning. I was raking up deadfall from the winter, spreading organic fertilizer (it’s dried chicken manure, but ‘organic fertilizer’ sounds so much more glamorous) on my grass, and uncovering the shoots and leaves of tiny plants looking for the sun, and it occurred to me that something was shifting with me. Something was changing. Along with spring. Along with this new job I have. Along with all the changes going on in the world. Something in me had shifted.
Suddenly, I felt ready to fight on.
Maybe it was watching HBO’s special PACQUIAO/HATTON 24/7, last night, which follows two boxers training and living their lives, leading up to their boxing match next month that reminded me what I fighter I really am. Maybe it was seeing the “old dawgs” who had been fighters and were now trainers, who were living their lives just as they were, pugilistic damage notwithstanding. Maybe it was watching the training, seeing the fighters and all the others around them going through the motions of preparing for the face-off.
Maybe it was the last three weeks I’ve had on the job, finding out just how much harder I have to work at this learning business. Maybe it was figuring out (yet again) that I need to not focus just on job security, but on employment security, and not let the political scene at work distract me from my skill-building and practice. Maybe it was getting to a point at work, where the folks I work with, side-by-side each day are starting to include me in their conversations. Maybe it was being told that my contract may be up sooner than I expected, so I may have to go out looking for a new job, sooner rather than later.
Maybe it was the unseasonally hot spring morning. And the mayflies swarming me. And the physical labor of raking and lifting and hauling and pushing and wheeling. And the stink of chicken manure dust on my jeans and the sweat streaming down my back. And the realization that I haven’t taken nearly as good care of my house and my yard, as I should in the past few years, and that sustaining a mild TBI that threw me for a loop is no longer a viable excuse, now that I know about it, I know about my issues, and I am able to do something about them.
Maybe it was the acceptance of the fact that I’m probably going to be really, really tired much of the time I’m awake… and reaching a conscious decision to just learn to live with that and not let it stop me. I want to live my life. I want to have a full and complete life, and I’m not going to get that lying in bed. I am usually fatigued. Even if I do take two-hour naps on my days I’m at home, I am once again fatigued in a matter of hours after I wake up. That’s just how it is. Of course, I need to not endanger myself in the process and end up asleep at the wheel or convulsing with stress/exhaustion-induced seizures, but underlying fatigue is something I’ll likely just have to live with, the rest of my born days.
The headaches and general body pains and joint issues and ringing in my ears will likely be with me the rest of my born days, too. Nobody I’ve talked to has been able to figure them out or give me anything to ease them, and I just don’t have time to accommodate modern medicine’s enthusiastic cluelessness and get on with my life. None of my doctors have time for me. They literally don’t. They won’t take more than 20-30 minutes talking to me, and they sure as heck aren’t going to invest more time in understanding my underlying condition(s) from a wholistic standpoint. That’s not their thing, and I can no sooner expect them to change their ways, than I can expect the deer to stop eating my shrubbery towards the end of a deeply harsh winter.
I’m perfectly capable of functioning, even if I’m exhausted. And have a blazing headache. And creak and groan with every movement. And am having trouble keeping my balance. And can barely hear what’s going on around me for the whining roar in my ers. Heck, I’ve been doing it for years — and a lot longer than since my fall in 2004. I’ve been dog-tired, hounded by auditory static, and wracked by pain and for years. And yet I fight on.
Yes, I fight on. It’s what I do. It’s who I am. It’s what I’m about. I have friends who are all into peace and love, and that’s fine. I value their friendship, and they’re good people. But I’m a fighter. And while peace and love are wonderful, I’m not the kind of person who lets the absence of peace and love just stop me. If I did, I wouldn’t be where I am today. And I wouldn’t have been out today, working on my yard and my house on my day off work. I might have been out and about, but I would have been working on something that was the property of someone else. And probably feeling pretty sorry for myself, too.
Working up a sweat today, I realized that in the past several weeks — especially in the past few days — I’ve cycled around again to a point where I am looking less and less for sympathy regarding my condition; less and less, I am seeking assistance from others. Less and less, I’m asking my partner to pick up slack for me. Less and less, I’m looking to my co-workers to cut me slack. Less and less, I’m expecting my job to be secure and my work situation to be ideal. Less and less, I am in need of perfection — or accommodation, in order to succeed.
More and more, I’m looking more within for what I need. More and more, I am starting to look within for my own resources to see where and how I can help myself. More and more, I’m “giving up” on the medical establishment in a fairly good-natured way, allowing them their limitations, while not letting them hold me back or get me down. More and more, I’m just buckling down and doing the job in front of me, and it feels pretty good.
Now, on and off for about a year, I’ve been on a kind of quest to find out what issues I have and figure out what they mean to me. It’s been disconcerting and upsetting and unsettling to find out that in some ways I’m a lot worse off than I ever guessed. And it’s put me in a more vulnerable place than I care to be. I’ve been learning to reach out and ask for help. I’m also learning to see where and when I actually need help. That might not seem like such a huge deal, but for me it is.
But I have to say that trying to get others to help me is a bit of a losing proposition for me. I have a heck of a time articulating what I need, and frankly, I’d rather do a lot of things myself, than look to others. I have a hard time not only figuring out what I need from others, but also telling them what that is. And then I have an even harder time making sure they get it right. It’s just not where my skills lie.
And seeking for shelter in the face of adversity is also not in my nature. The “shelter” that others offer me is all too often not suited to me — it treats me like a victim, a hapless individual who has been acted-upon, rather than someone who acts upon my world. I have tried to find shelter with friends and therapists and family members and co-workers for much of the past year, and it’s just not working anymore. Not anymore.
So, I’m sorta kinda giving up on that. Doing for myself is really my first nature, and I need to get back to that. Blazing a trail through the jungles of my life is also innately me, and I need to get back to doing that with gusto. Yes, I have sustained multiple mild traumatic brain injuries over the course of my life. Yes, my difficulties have wreaked havoc with a lot of aspects of my life. Yes, things that others find really easy are very difficult for me, and things that others find difficult are quite easy for me. I’m at odds with the world. Always have been, most likely always will be.
And I’m okay with it. It’s just who I am. And I’ve been separated from that truth about myself for too long.
Now, I’m doing something about that. I’m getting back to just being who and what I am. I’m getting back to doing by just doing, rather than noodling everything through, up-down-left-right-inside-out, and mucking it all up in the process. I’m getting back to being okay in some ways and not-okay in others, and allowing that to be what is. I’m getting back to doing what I do, exactly the way I do it, and just letting myself be.
So whatever I do, I’ll just do it, without expecting anyone’s help. I won’t spoil my effort by seeking for shelter. I’ll protect myself and grow upright to the sky; that is all.
Yeah, that.
Broken Brain - Brilliant Mind 