Today, Find the Light
I've been under the weather the last few days. A handful of Covid tests remind me that we can actually just get a cold, nothing more. How soon we forget that a few trips both business and personal, even with masks, can equate to a tired run down body prime to get the germs.
That phrase, "under the weather" reminds me of all those other casual phrases we use to lessen the impact of how we are really doing to ourselves and to others. "How are you feeling?" a friend asks...
(Me with a 103 fever and a headache that has not abated for days..)
"Oh I'm just under the weather."
Here is another, "Sorry, I know I am being so bi-polar on this."
In addition to being Disability Awareness Month, and Breast Cancer Awareness Month, October is also Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Mental Health Awareness Month. We sure have packed a lot into the fall.
What do all of these things have in common? They are silent. Often unknown or unseen. Breast cancer has robbed so many of us of time with someone we love, time we didn't see slipping silently away. Disabilities are so often suffered invisibly and more widely ranging that most will acknowledge: we don't always have totems like wheelchairs to let us know about someone's unseen struggle.
As is my tradition each October, I honor these topics by sharing that I have bi-polar disorder no matter how that changes the way I am perceived in the professional world. I do this because I am proof you can treat and manage mental illness and also because I know that mental health is complicated and still stigmatized and deserves air and light. I also repost my Medium article "What I want the world to know about Domestic Violence" because for many years I suffered that in silence and I know so few understand how a smart, kind, woman can end up in that situation and why she does not leave.
Today is my birthday. 47 years around the sun. And I have one ask of my network:
Today, find the light. Honor the unseen. Remember the invisible struggle and show up with compassion today.
And please, please, please: if you are struggling yourself, know that you don't have to face it alone. You don't have to lessen or reduce your suffering to platitudes like "I'm fine" or "It's ok, I'm just a bit under the weather" or "I'm just a little blue these days."
Find the courage to reach out, to speak your truth, to lean on your network. I see you, and you are good enough.