I recently found myself getting anxious … Really anxious to the point that I couldn’t function effectively. About 2 and a half years back, I injured my shoulder at work and for a while, it seemed to get worse and worse and I thought it wouldn’t get better. I decided I would apply to go back to uni because if my shoulder didn’t heal, I had limited options. Then I got engaged and rather than defer my uni plans, took on uni and wedding planning on top of the responsibility of parenting and work. Not only is wedding planning stressful, but for me it also brought back a lot that I needed to work through from my past and placing so much pressure on myself to do it all in a year plus a few things going so pear-shaped last year left me just unable to function effectively. I was worrying about things I had no control over … the wedding was sorted, I finish uni this year, and the shoulder did heal.

Recently, I heard a preacher talk about working with the cards that you have been dealt and it got me thinking. So many times, we look at our lives and focus on things we can’t change. You can’t change your family, or your past. Most times, you can’t pick your boss, and sometimes, you find yourself forced to be where you don’t want to be. Things inevitably will go wrong; you win some, you lose some. We all have battles to fight, be it disease, or wars or just facing an unfair world. Instead of stressing, worrying about what’s out of our control, it’s important to remember to play the cards we’ve been dealt.

Everyone has their own set of cards, and I realised that wondering what our lives would have been like, doesn’t help us. Even without the bullies, the unfair boss, the horrible parents, or the lovely parents who died too early, there are no guarantees our lives wouldn’t be as messy as they are now. Everyone has mess to clean, stories to tell and battles to fight, be it at someone else’s hand or our own making. Sometimes we want people to sympathise and find an easier route for us, but life is hard, at different times, for all of us and we must each play the cards we’ve been dealt. I have only one guarantee … God! and that’s all I need. Do I get stressed still, yes! Today I caught myself worrying about not having a placement for prac and how this would eat into my planning time, but again, was reminded that I can work with this, it’s not the end of the world and God has me covered.

So before you start crying over what was or could have been, make a life out of whatever your circumstance is and find ways to get to where you want to be.