“If you want help, you shouldn’t act like a person who never needs any,” my daughter muttered to me one night when I was angry, and for once I was at a loss for words because she had so completely nailed my modus operandi.”
― Anna Quindlen, Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake: A Memoir of a Woman's Life
In just a few weeks, I will turn 70. I fear it might be the first birthday that I will truly be bothered by. It seems monumental and yet a bit unnerving. It doesn’t necessarily seem old, but I do see changes on the horizon. Changes that I am already fighting with frustration and anger. I work on reminding myself that it is okay to slow down, to say no, to ask for help and to say no. It is also okay to say yes to things that bring me joy, to spend hours in the garden and not fix dinner because I am tired. It is okay to pick and choose how to spend the hours in my day, knowing some things will go the wayside.
I am working on asking for help and saying thank you, rather than being frustrated and angry, finding out it is a work in progress, for sure!