Get ready for some swearing, I feel it coming out in this one. I had a friend send this, we “liked” it, mentioned it would be a good quick post for YWR, and as I went to post the picture it became so much more.
See, how many times have we parked, and realized the minute we pulled in that it was a shit job. You know what I am talking about. We peer over the passenger seat and see how close we are to that person’s door or we open the door just a crack and look down and can’t see the yellow line below. Hell, I have even gotten out and looked at my shitty parking job from afar AND still shrugged my shoulders -too lazy, too apathetic, too in a hurry to take 30 seconds to get back in the car and re-do. AND if no one is parked next to me? Well you know what happens then, I am not bothering anyone around me so of course I am not moving. It is like the free space in Bingo!
You are scratching your head, how does this relate to mental health? Let me tell you, SO MANY WAYS. Personally with my one adult like child I so want him to see that you can Re-park…anytime, any age. Just back up and frickin try again. If you look at the park job and see it is crap then try again.
I think of us who struggle with our own anxiety or depression, and I KNOW we get so in the weeds that backing up and trying again seems impossible-but just try it, with one little thing.
As caretakers, WE ARE the yellow lines for those we love and support. Take those yellow lines away and the person we love is left with open space, no guidelines, or lane to stay in. We have to do that, we have to be those parking lines that make them pause and think, “I should try again, because the people around me matter”. We cannot let them look from afar and shrug their shoulders in apathy. That is how we lose our loved ones.
We caretakers also need our own permission to try again, we aren’t going to have all the perfect answers every time and we deserve the re-dos. The hard part is the “trying”, it is exhausting, I get it. The alternative is the door gets dinged or we can’t get out of the damn car-literally. We have to squirm and shimmy EVERYTHING in our life to get in and out. Like the time I had to get in the back of my car and climb over seats in a dress suit because of someone else’s crappy parking job. That is what happens when we don’t try-literally. Metaphorically….
We won’t get it right the first time, or the 100th time
Re-park-try again.
