I am sure you know the popular song, “I’m a little teapot short and stout….” Well today I had a monumental revelation- my life is a teapot. And this teapot that is my life, it is operated at more than than half full on a daily basis from Mom’s MS alone. Consequently if something else major happens in my life it doesn’t just increase the level of tea in the teapot but it will typically reach or exceed its boiling point. 

In a way everyone’s lives are a teapot. But most people operate their teapot daily at 1/4 full. So as issues arise and their level of tea increases it will boil more but it takes a lot to make it boil over. The problem is that on a day where everything else in my life is operating at neutral, my teapot can still boil over very easily from Mom’s MS alone. If she should be having a bad day or there are new issues to deal with, this alone can make it rise. Add on top of that any issues that may come up for me personally and my teapot is boiling over.   

I am learning that MS is very much physical but the mental portion of it can be equally frustrating. And I struggle because MS is so foreign to me. How much is Mom about to do and how much is she truly not able to do? How much wears her out and makes her tired? Could she be trying harder or is she trying as hard as she can? Sister K is home and frustrated because Mom doesn’t want to go do anything. It makes me upset because we want to go do things with our Mom- simple as that. I have talked a lot about that on here recently but I feel like since Mom’s relapse that is one of the hardest areas we are dealing with and adjusting to right now. The conflicting emotions involved when Mom wants to stay home and we want to go do something with her. Take her to a store, take her to lunch, take her to a movie- simple things that we like to do with our Mom.

So, this brings me back to the teapot. The normal feelings that would occur from the lack of being able to do these things doesn’t just make Sister K and me sad, it sends us into frustration. We end up close to reaching our boiling point. We have our normal MS frustrations plus the new ones plus any small issues that are festering in our own lives. We are still growing up, our lives are not very settled and it’s hard. Sister K can be set off by something as simple as boy problems. I can be set off by a simple fight with Husband that I have no patience for- usually over something that really shouldn’t bother me much…have I mentioned I am still in the newlywed category, still trying to adjust to being married? Sister K and I know we aren’t acting rational but at the same time we are having trouble dealing with our emotions and thoughts because there are so many of them about so many different things. Sometimes I wish I could find someone to “tip me over and pour me out…”

Have you ever thought of your life as a teapot? How do you keep from boiling over and manage your stress? Did you love the song “I’m a Little Teapot” as much as I did when you were growing up?