Just Keep Making your Bed…

So it’s been awhile since I checked in. To be honest, I just haven’t felt much like writing. After all, this blog has never been about the people that read it, but more about me getting things off my chest and I guess verbalizing what I’ve got going inside my head. My hope is this will be encouraging to you but just be prepared, there may be a chance that you’re offended by some of the things I have to say……..

I’m sure just like the rest of you, I’ve probably spent more time on Facebook lately than normal.  During that time the one thing that has been painfully obvious to me is how soft and whiney people are. I can’t remember a time when I’ve seen/read more complaining in my life! If it’s not about how the people in charge are messing things up it’s about how unfair it is to ask the things they have asked us to do to make the situation better. I listened to a reporter yesterday grilling a representative about the Payroll Protection Plan and saying it was unfair to give money to businesses and require them to pay their employees……what? are you serious? That’s the idea of it, to keep people employed, why would that not be a requirement? But wait…. I digress……

I want to give you something today to encourage and make you think. That message I have is simple:

KEEP MAKING YOUR BED.

Yep, that’s it, keep making your bed, it’s really that simple. Just keep pushing, keep living, keep getting up and keep making your bed. That’s what I’ve done.

To date, I’ve made mine 867 times, and I don’t plan on stopping. That’s the number of days since our first meeting with the Dr about my cancer. 867 days. Annette and I thought our world would end that day, but here we are, 867 days later, still making the bed.

I haven’t written much about the details of the things Annette and I have had to deal with personally in regards to my cancer. I’ve just figured there are 10’s of thousands of people that are having to deal with the same or much worse and really didn’t want to sound like a cry baby about it. But in light of the recent Facebook posts I’ve had to endure I thought I might give you something to think about.

In that 867 days, we have canceled multiple trips both personal and business, lost untold amounts of money because of it, I’ve spent Christmas and New Year’s day in a hospital bed, missed birthday parties, spent weekends laying on the couch because I literally couldn’t get up. I’ve had to rethink my whole life in regards to work, retirement, being a husband, being a dad, being a grandpa…..More specifically, in the last 9 months there have been multiple days that I had to be carried to the bathroom by my son because I couldn’t walk from the pain. There have been many mornings, Annette has had to dress me because I couldn’t bend over to put my socks on. But I still went to work. Why? Because it will get better, that’s what I kept telling myself, “this will get better”. And you know what, it did. Here I am, taking some new meds and I’m riding my bike, washing my pick up and going to work on time for once, feeling fantastic. Will it last? Who knows. All I know is I’m enjoying the heck out of it while it’s here!

I made the decision when this started that I wasn’t going to spend the time I had left dieing while I was waiting to die. It just doesn’t make sense. You get up, you get dressed and you MAKE YOUR BED. You live your life the best as possible and keep hoping for things to get better…..and they will. If you think you’re gonna get through life without pain or heartache or problems, you are kidding yourself, everyone has trials, what matters is that you plow through them and get on with your life. It’s your choice.

So, the next time you feel like complaining cause you can’t go to the mall or you want to get out of the house, you want to hang out with your friends,  just remember, this will be over before you know it and it will be nothing but a memory. You’ll laugh at the things you did to occupy your time, you’ll be thankful for the things you learned and the things you changed. You will actually look forward to some of those mundane things that before this weird time drove you crazy.

Your life will be better,

……..all because you just kept making your bed.