Which Path Will You Take
by Cheryl Stevenson
The path of acceptance or the path of denial?
The path of denial will prevent you from treasuring those precious moments together, but acceptance will allow you to cherish those times together.
The journey of memory impairment is filled with lots of twists and turns, but it can also be filled with joy because you learn to appreciate the littlest things in life.
Acceptance will make it possible for you to realize that you can still make those new memories.
You will accept that it is okay if the person with a memory impairment doesn't remember because you will always have those memories for them.
The path of denial is lonely and sad.
The path of acceptance is filled with new adventures, bumpy roads & even some joy!
Staying on a path of denial can be a waste of time because you really aren't enjoying life, instead you are existing.
Living in denial is pretending that your life hasn't changed, even though it has and it will continue to do so in the future.
Denial means you are not using this time to educate yourself & others, & you are probably not surrounding yourself with a good support system for now and in the future.
Acceptance doesn't mean giving up, but rather learning how to live in the moment, enjoying all the good times that still can be lived.
Denial can be a very dark place to be.
Acceptance can help give a patient a sense of peace.
Acceptance makes it possible for me to learn how to live my “new life”.
Denial forces me to not move on, but rather stay “stuck”.
I choose ACCEPTANCE!
Which path will you choose?
I think that when I was 1st diagnosed in July 2005, I would say that denial definitely snuck in, but I choose to not be in that place anymore. I have too much that I want to accomplish in my life, so I really don't have time for denial.
It took me a while to finish this one, but I'm happy with how it came out. I guess sometimes I just need to be patient & not rush the writing process.
