Last Thursday began at 6:30 a.m. By 6:50 a.m. my husband and I knew the day was not going to end the way we had been planning…
Saturday was our 24th wedding anniversary! We had planned a fun 2-day retreat, complete with Razor and four-wheeler fun in the desert. We had set up things with our children and all was in place. And then chaos showed up on the front door…five hours before we were to leave for the weekend.
Our oldest daughter had a cyst on her knee removed last Wednesday. She was having some trouble and her roommate called and said she had just passed out…which led to 911 being dispatched…which led to her soon-to-be-sister-in-law taking her to the emergency room. I jumped in the car at 7:30 a.m. and met them at ER…we ended up at the surgery center and they took good care of us…hooked Allyse us to an IV to get fluids in her. We were told the fainting was most likely due to a reaction of the vagus nerve. Sights, smells, trauma, etc…, can trigger the vagus nerve to “over react.” The sympathetic nervous system probably also kicked into high gear. This is the system that controls “fight or flight.” Knowing how to calm this system down is crucial so that the body does not stay in a state of fight but can be in a state of calm which encourages growth.
As soon as I left for the surgery center, Steve said he sat down at the kitchen counter to figure out what was happening…and he came up with a list. It wasn’t even 8:30 a.m. and this is what it said:
Our daughter and I were able to leave the surgery center by 11:30 a.m…and then make it back to our home. It was obvious that we needed to cancel our anniversary plans. My challenge was to not fall apart about it. My challenge was to hold the line. I was disappointed, to be sure. And so Allyse went to take a nap and I went downstairs and had a nice cry while laying on the floor! I let the disappointment flow through and out of me.
Steve held the line as well. Between the two of us, we did not allow anything on that list to pull us down, to bring despondency, to bring anger or resentment. And everything on that list got some type of resolution before the end of the day. Four years ago a list like that would have put both of us in a tailspin!
So how did we do it? We have learned how to live INTENTIONALLY. It has made all of the difference. And we both fully believe this intention helped us to be able to make the anniversary plans occur at the beginning of this week.
What do you do to live intentionally?
IT MATTERS!
Learn more about my journey HERE.
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