Life is a marathon, not a sprint…

…and it’s okay to walk when you get tired, just as long as you keep moving forward.

It’s been one of those days where the lupus is trying to wrinkle up my Wonder Woman leotard and I started to get the sads. But alas, I’m fighting as I always do and this too shall pass. I hope it passes quicker than my husband’s gas, but look, it’ll pass so I’ll take it.

Rather than do some disingenuous humblebrag, I’m going to straight up gloat. I have a FANTASTIC support team. I mean fantastic like the super strength Spanx that you wear under your good freak’um dress that make it look like you’ve been hitting the gym hard, when in fact you’ve been doing little more than eating all the things in the fridge while binge-watching Orange Is The New Black. This crew gets me through thaaaangs and reminds me that sometimes just smiling is a victory that should be celebrated.

There was a time when I felt like I had no support team. Hell, I didn’t even have myself

to lean on. Things were dark, yo. But then came this blessing in disguise called Lupus, and out of the woodwork came some great people. It’s true that your best friends are found during crises, but only to a point. The truly good ones are there after the crisis ends to throw shade on the ones who talked mess about you while you were going through it. And they come in the most unlikely places — Facebook, the dog park, work, wherever.

With that said, fighting gets tiring. I really wish I could say that I wake up every day ready to throw some whoop ass at my health troubles, but it’s not always that simple. I’m lucky to have what’s considered a fairly mild form of the disease, but I’m not free from related health challenges. Sometimes I do feel like I just want to sit the rest of the game out and watch from the sidelines. And I do. And then I feel guilty. However, a very wise friend said something to me today that just clicked. It started with an old cliché and ended with something I’d never heard.

“Life is a marathon, not a sprint and it’s okay to walk when you get tired as long as you keep moving forward”

For some reason, the last piece just resonated with me. It really is okay to walk when you get tired. We spend so much time trying to be everything and do everything that we get tired, but as long as you don’t stop trying, you’re in good shape. That’s advice that goes for everyone in every circumstance. Sometimes it’s good to walk even when you’re not tired because you need to reset your life GPS. We grind, we hustle hard, and sometimes we lose sight of why. Taking some time to walk rather than run to the next thing gives you a chance to regroup and reanalyze why you do what you do and also allows you to change course if that’s what you need to do. The finish line is the same for all of us, don’t be afraid to walk if you get tired.