I decided to wear my oldest pair of tennis shoes. When putting them on I noticed an area by my right big toe that had begun to show a lot of wear, but I hadn’t noticed the full extent of that. Walking through puddles and in the rain, I began to notice that my right foot felt cold. Then I could feel my sock getting wet. Indeed it became obvious that there was indeed a hole in my shoe.
In the journey of special needs I’ve sometimes noticed a little too late how much something is affecting me. Little by little over time, I/we keep doing the same thing that seems to have worked for a long while and then what seems like all of a sudden, there is something in the situation that needs to be remedied. In this situation it was simply to change shoes and socks and if needed, a new tennis shoes. That simple choice would lead to changed results. Yet, in the real world of caring for one 24/7 we do things that seem to work and yet at some point we realize it’s not working. Maybe it’s our fatigue level. Maybe it’s not getting out of the house on time. Or perhaps it’s that something just isn’t going as smoothly as it did. Season, times, and methods change and we need to realize we need to change with them to be sure we don’t burn out. Those are the times we can gather our social media connections and ask for help or direction, and even better yet, grabbing a cup of coffee with a real friend in our same life situation who will really understand, and ask advice from them because they know and love us well and have our best interest in mind.
Source: Special Needs Parenting- Key Ministry
