This is a bizarre week, isn't it? We've survived the madness of the holidays; the shopping, the baking, the decorating, the eating, the wrapping, the opening, the eating, the smiling, the eating, the singing, the eating and finally the Alka-Seltzering. Hopefully our celebrations were enjoyed without major incident (no food poisoning, wrapping-paper cuts, fist-fights or emergency calls to the therapists) and we can exhale during the much-needed quiet that this week offers. But as the week moves along, we can't help but to look back and look ahead. We glance over our shoulder and forward again, considering what we did this past year and what we hope to do next year, and back and forth and back and forth and the mental list is growing and growing and we are planning and speculating and worrying, knowing we have a lot to do if we want to hit the ground running in the new year (which starts next week, no pressure!).

But while most people are laboring/avoiding/pondering their "didn't do/should do/going to do" list, those of us who are living with MS are laboring/avoiding/pondering a very different list. Starting with "what I can't do now, that I could do then, followed by "what I can do now that I won't be able to do when" completed with a look away at something, anything, but the list in front of them.

We all have different ways of coping with these moments when we are forced to consider things we may not want to notice. I do everything in my power to shift my end of year laboring/avoiding/pondering to something more positive/optimistic/hopeful.

What tune will your list be sung to?