Last week a friend called me. Twice. The first time I was in a meeting. Later I was on my way out of a coffee shop post-meeting so was able to answer. Friend said that they had had some time while driving to and from an appointment with their therapist and were thinking about me and wanted to check in, see how things were going. Friend seems to be pretty good at meeting with their person on a regular basis. That conversation and a couple others of late planted a seed.
While things are mostly positive (despite recent needs to vent), it is a bit stressful to try and juggle various things while also trying to learn new things, and then there *are* the things that needed venting about on top of those more regular things.
Ideally I should find a spiritual director, or a therapist or coach with ADD experience nearby (or heck, maybe 1 of each). But it takes time to layout history and build trust. So in the meantime I'd been thinking maybe I should at least check in by phone with Dr. H., my guy who helped me weed through the ADD stuff during seminary and I've checked in with periodically since. I was going to say it'd be perfect for me if he moved here or I was rich and could fly there or fly him in here. That just gave me a thought, I wonder if anyone meets using webcams?
Anyway, since I'm trying to rally and be more balanced and healthy I decided to call today to set up an appointment. I forgot I have both office and cell numbers in my phone and my phone defaults and calls a cell number first if I just hit "send" on the person's name. So Dr. H. answers and it sounds like it might be a restaurant and I realize what's happened. Doh! I say it's me, briefly explain the mix-up, I was trying to call the office to set up an appointment. He sounded happy to hear from me and said he guessed he'd talk to me soon then, after making sure I had the other number.
It was amazing what that brief moment of a combination of calm & cheerfulness did for my mood. I felt myself lighten somewhat, like when a friend steps in and helps you carry stuff. I hadn't realized the extent to which I was carting baggage around with me today until that moment. Which tells me the phone appointment is a good idea. Now I kind of regret not touching base more often, because there may be more to fill in, and maybe I wouldn't have let myself become a stressball last week. I think the last time we spoke was in the fall in the wake of providing pastoral care for my parishioner who's spouse died by suicide. Well, I can't change the past but can only keep moving forward from here.
The secretary didn't call me back today so I should be contacted tomorrow to arrange something. Then it just depends on how busy he is, and getting our schedules to match up.
In terms of other areas of balance... In addition to journaling to work through stuff, and trying to get my butt to the gym I joined, I've considered the possibilities (for quite some time actually) of either a cleaning person or a coach to help me go through papers get organized, help me avoid junk-mail mountain. But I don't know where would be a better place to start, I feel weird about needing help with some stuff others don't seem to (of course if you're married there may be one more person making a mess, but there's two of you to do cleaning & organizing and other chores too - you can divide & conquer).
It's getting late and I want to get up early. Busy day tomorrow.
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