Taking A Deep Breath

It’s been an intensely stressful few weeks. I wrote about the gusty winds blowing in my life a few weeks ago: i.e., a couple of emergency situations between broken hot water and sick kitty. Thankfully, Benji, the kitty is doing much better now although we’d likely have to keep our eyes on his urinary tract condition for the rest of his life. He’s definitely back to his usual rambunctious and affectionate self. His sister, Zoey, is happy to have her playmate back, too.

And the much anticipated water heater has arrived at last. The contractors are coming to install tomorrow. Hopefully, by the time you read this, we will have the hot water running in our house. I say “hopefully” because the unit is a highly energy efficient new technology you must have heard about called, “heat pump,” which requires some specific elements for it to work well. Because our old water heater was located in a small closet space, it may not be as simple to install as it would be to install say in a garage.

While we did survive without hot water in the house for almost 3 weeks, I will admit it was quite cumbersome to say the least. We boiled water to clean dishes, pots and pans. My husband took towel baths. I went to a few different friends’ homes to take showers. Honestly, it felt quite chaotic. It didn’t help that I had all these business activities that tended to keep me glued to my computer for days. I found myself irritable and whiny, and was probably not very pleasant to people around me, namely my husband. 😅 It wasn’t until I finally took a break to go for a walk in the woods on Friday afternoon before the snow came, I realized I hardly gave myself much time to relax and decompress in the last few weeks.

When I get like that, it’s a clear sign of stress. It’s time to pause and take a deep breath, take out the tool kit of mindful self-compassion, and sign out my tension in the body and feel the feelings that I haven’t allowed myself to feel. The good news is to know we could survive and this, too, shall pass.