I am not alone

Who knew.  

I have heard this my whole life.  ‘You are not alone”.  Why this week did it make sense to me for the first time?

Single parenting teens is not for the faint of heart.  Combined with hiccups in my income.  A few question marks on my health.  And some personal crap thrown in.  I feel alone.  Without a doubt, I feel alone. 

When I look around I see tired moms running their kids around, heading home to make dinner where their husband takes over for them.  He makes dinner or he drives the kids to their evening sports or he earns the income as a provider or he might even give her a foot rub.  Dreamy.  

I don’t pretend to think that that life is perfect either.  But what I think did come clear to me this week is that regardless of how much better things look elsewhere, the struggle is real… it just changes.  My teens are not the only teens with attitude.  I am not the only one with financial challenges in 2020.  Many people have health issues ranging from headaches to much more.  

I thought I was the only one that had cranky teens.  I really did.  What I learned this week when I hear stories of other teens is that my job is to begin to put on my gratitude glasses.  Seek out the little tiny good deeds and focus on those.  Because the truth is, nobody is without challenges.  We are all in this together.  And I do know now that when I feel alone and nobody else’s battle is this big, that I am wrong.  That my neighbour has a battle too.  And that after all I am not alone.