is worth doing poorly.
Do you have a pile of clean laundry in a basket waiting to fold and put away? Is it taunting you with recriminations on just how unable you are to sit through the immensity of that chore?
Fold and put away whatever is on top, and walk away.
Are your dishes piling up because the dishwasher is full of clean dishes you don’t have the energy to put away today? Hand wash your coffee cup and set is on a hand towel to dry.
Walk away.
Can’t shower? Wet a wash cloth, add soap, wipe the stinky bits down.
Can’t bring yourself to brush your teeth? Rinse with mouthwash.
There are no actual rules to how you clean, yourself or your house, especially when you have a chronic illness. Leave things half done, only do a little, rest 187 times as you do a chore. Find the rhythm and method that work the best for you – THAT DAY – and use them.
Then forgive yourself for not being a fully able bodied person and congratulate yourself on having folded a sheet, or washed your armpits, or microwaved a bowl of soup.
The stress and guilt of the things we cannot do is just as exhausting to deal with as our disease. So don’t engage with them.
You aren’t supposed to be able to do as much as someone in good health. This doesn’t make you less than, it just makes you different. I bet there are a million small ways you make life better for the people you love, even if being there to listen when they need you takes the place of hand sewing all their Halloween costumes.
There are so many ways to show up for people, we are not limited to only those ways commonly used by the young and the healthy.
Be safe and be well.
