My Mother on Mother’s Day years ago.

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”  Theodore Roosevelt

Today we’re celebrating Mother’s Day. I’m not sure why we’re doing it today instead of tomorrow. My mom and brother try to plan to do things on the day the most people can come. Both my kids that live here work on weekends so one of them would probably miss it no matter which day we do it. My daughter (who is my youngest of 3 ages 24, 21, 18) will only be able to be there for an hour or so before she has to go to work.

Family gatherings is one place that I tend to react out of old bipolar made habits. I mean when I was out of control I developed habits that were only good to destroy family relationships. I would automatically and without thinking react and snap at people all the time. I used to avoid my dad, but he’s gone now. He passed away last year. Now I don’t have the chance to get to know him.

All of my life, as far back as I can remember, I’ve suffered with Bipolar Disorder. I think he was an undiagnosed bipolar. He and I clashed almost every time we talked. It was really hard on my mom. I don’t think I’ll ever understand just how hard on her it was. But now I’m striving to heal my relationship with her, to think before I react. To embrace positive feelings and reject negative ones.

Now that I’m on medications that allow me to control what I say and do I’m able to relearn how to communicate with my family. I’m not having that knee jerk response and can think before I speak. I’m learning to have good manners in a way.