Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored," confusing the Aztec with the Maya since high school! Well, heck. How am I supposed to know about anything south of Texas? I haven't even been to Texas!
Both of my daughters are having trouble with their nerves right now. They're experiencing panic attacks and anxiety. I know the feeling. I remember being in my teens. It's not the greatest time of life.
Every day I go to my new job, and I look around me, and the job and everything about it seem totally foreign. I feel like that dude in the Talking Heads who kept saying, "This is not my house. This is not my car." (I've probably got that wrong too. Lazy again, not gonna Google Talking Heads lyrics.)
How did I get here?
Having had my children rather later in life, I'm heading toward crone-hood. And that helps immensely with the new job and the mountain of responsibilities that go with it. At 25, teaching at this school where I've been hired would have crushed me like a bug. The job may indeed crush me, but it won't be like a bug. I'm just old enough now to see the Big Picture. The Cailleach showed it to me. It goes something like this: Breathe, laugh, stay calm, eat well, do your best, and love the children.
The Cailleach tells me that panic is for the young, and that the only time I'll ever need it again is in a fight-or-flight situation, which is not likely to arise. So each day I make my tea, rouse the Green Man from his leafy slumber, pour some seed into Decibel's bowl, and stride off to a foreign place, older and wiser.
Thank you, Cailleach, for guiding me into late afternoon.
Image: Another fabulous artwork from Thalia Took. Wow, you should definitely visit her site!
4 comments:
I hope the year gets easier on all of you. If you're interested, Hyland's has a couple of natural products for anxiety/stress - one being called "nerve tonic" and the other "calms forte". I use them both and they work well for me (as needed and promptly). They can be found in most drug and grocery stores.
The gift of the Cailleach is the gift of finally being able to just say "Fuck it!" I wish I could have had that attitude at 25 but I took life much, much too seriously then.
Wise words indeed!
for the daughter's anxiety, perhaps soem lemon balm tea, if they agree to "Mom's Herbal Coddling (tm)"
It works well for us older folks, and while my first thought was for Motherwort tincture, I can't get my wife to use it due to the taste, even though she agrees when she does it took the stress right out of her for a little while. :)
Good luck and breathe, love, & laugh. New years' coming, and it's stressful for anyone, with school and such. Sometimes good stress, sometimes bad. Change=stress however so is not unexpected.
those kids will never know(till many years later) just how lucky they were to have had you for a teacher.
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