A bad week and an announcement

What do you do when you are having a bad week? For me? I can very easily turn a bad day into a bad week or a bad month if I'm not careful.
We are all allowed to have bad days.....it's what we do with those bad days and the days after it that really is the key to maintaining your joy.
This week was particularly hard for me. Mark has had another bout of gout. He has had two bouts of it and a round of kidney stones all in 4 months. He has two doctor's appointments coming up, so I'm thinking he'll be having some medication adjustments. We already have altered his diet to prevent uric acid build-up. When Mark has these things happen EVERYTHING comes to a halt for him and I have to pick up the slack. It was the last week of summer school, and I frankly didn't want to do that. Plus my neuropathy was acting up a little. So.... I had a little pity party for myself and had some trouble finding my joy.
What did I do? Put it out there to my community of friends. To the community that tells me how they love to see my #Findyourjoy and the stories I tell. My friend Charity reminded me in that post that as women we tend to not be transparent and that most of the time we just say "everything is fine", when it really isn't.
Don't isolate yourself in your struggles, it only makes you go deeper into them and then you have further to crawl out of the pit. Find your community, and work alongside of them to find your joy. Also, be prepared to do the same for them. You'll be amazed at how helping someone realize the joy they all along had inside them makes your joy shine even brighter.

So...... now my crazy announcement. I have been asked to do two speaking engagements about my journey and #Findyourjoy. The first one is a definite this Fall, and the other is still in the works for the Spring. I am totally blessed and humbled that my journey would be a topic that could help others. I'm steadily working on the specifics of the talk, and may through this opportunity have some other things in the works.
When I have more on the engagements I'll let you know, but for now, I'm doing much better this week thanks to all of you, and I'm spending the last three weeks of vacation enjoying this glorious weather, doing some things with Mark, and thoughtfully preparing for the Fall!

#Findyourjoy