Perfection

Recently I was on vacation.  I met my sisters in Washington, DC, then we went on to New York City.  My elder sister and I returned to DC for a few extra days. I found it stressful.  No, not because of my sisters, but just the shuffling of things, Air B & B, Hotel, condo, packing, unpacking. Ugh!

In my last post, I expressed the idea that I had turned the corner on the stroke recovery process.  And I still feel that way.  But after this trip, I have reverted back to some old behavior.  I’ve pretty much stayed inside for the last two weeks; I haven’t exercised and have felt depressed. 

Today I feel a bit better but there’s still some residual stress from the trip. 

I imagine this sort of thing will go on until it doesn’t.  I can’t look at it as some sort of relapse in my recovery, just that time takes time.  Healing is a process.  Each time I think I’ve got this, I must remind myself as new things come up, like vacations, there will be some blowback.  It doesn’t mean this discomfort will stay forever or that I haven’t progressed.

As I write this, what comes to mind is progress not perfection.  No one is perfect, I know that yet I am striving for perfection in this stroke recovery – I certainly was not perfect before the stroke, so why do I expect now?