Sometimes when I find myself in a negative jam, I blast some Michael Bublé – “When You’re Smiling” – or whichever song it is that makes me happy at the time, I take a deep breath, and I give myself a spoonful of perspective.
This method of getting myself out of my mental rut really helped when we received Leo’s diagnosis. It carried on when he was born. A few minutes after they rolled him off to the NICU, Juan came back into the room I was in. He came in with a huge smile on his face saying that Leo and his heart were doing great. Mind you, Leo was being admitted into the NICU and his Down Syndrome diagnosis was confirmed, but our spoonful of perspective was that our new beautiful boy would not need open heart surgery right away. Another example happened a year ago when we found ourselves in the hospital again with Leo. He had complications with a cold that had turned into pneumonia and his oxygen levels were low. It was right in the beginning of my pregnancy with his brother and my nausea was creeping in. However, a few doors down, there was a little girl with Down Syndrome. The nurses joked that she was Leo’s future girlfriend. Her parents rarely came to the hospital, for whatever reason. My spoonful of perspective at that time was that we were privileged enough to be able to stay with our son at the hospital during his stay, even if it was only two days.
Finally, with regards to Covid. As stressed out as I can get, wondering whether or not Leo or someone in my family will get it and react badly, I give myself some perspective thinking that we live in a city and a country with enough knowledge and hospitals to be able to help Leo or a loved one immensely if they were to get a bad reaction.
So, whatever your spoonful of perspective is, don’t forget to take it every now and then, when you’ve been out in the rain a bit too long. Just breath in, listen to some Mary Poppins, “A Spoonful of Sugar”, and dance it out if you have to.
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