RAC for the heart

I always find April to be a month of mixed emotions. April is probably the most difficult month of the year for me. It is the month I lost my Dad. As soon as the first of April rears its head I can physically feel a heaviness in my heart, pulling me down a little. This feeling will last the whole month and I know it will, but I have learned to be OK with it.

April also brings Easter and without a doubt Easter is the RAC for my heart. Sometimes I wonder if it was a little bit of divine intervention that my Daddy passed away the same month as Easter, to help my heart heal a little quicker. Easter means different things to different people, for some people it means chocolate, for others it means family time and for others it relates more to religion and faith. All options are fine, particularly the chocolate one.

I don’t often choose to talk about my faith, not because I am ashamed of it, but because it is deeply personal, and I feel that the relationship I have with my heavenly father is private and not open for public debate or discussion. Again, I am aware that not everyone believes the same things as me and that is totally fine, but for me personally, I find Easter to be the RAC to my heart. I personally believe that family is forever and that because of Easter I will be with my daddy again in the next life. This thought is what helps ease my pain and heal my heart.

The true meaning of Easter isn’t what I want to talk about today, however. I want to talk about finding your own RAC for your heart when times are tough. Having epilepsy makes life tough as it is, but the world and all its problems doesn’t care about your health condition and so will continue to throw difficult and sometimes painful moments at you. Sometimes it is hard to keep going when those curve balls hit. They can knock the wind out of you, smash your windscreen and puncture your tyres. They can even blow your engine if you’re not careful. Regardless of how happy and content you are, at some point in your life you are going to break down and that is totally OK.

Can you imagine having a car for your entire life and it never breaking down, never needing a tyre changing or even running out of petrol? Nope, neither can I. Imagine your heart is that car. You are going to have it for the rest of your life and sometimes it is going to break down (emotionally not physically!!). Sometimes your tyre is going to go flat or the engine is going to stop working or sometimes the road conditions might not be great and you might just need to pull over and stop for a while. Stopping and braking down is fine as long as you don’t plan on staying there.

When you break down you call the RAC or AA or whichever break down cover you might have and they come to the rescue. When my heart breaks down the promise of Easter comes to my rescue and helps me to get going again.

We all need to find our own personal RAC. It could be a belief, it could be a good chat with a good friend, it could be a walk in the country or reading your favourite book. It might be spending time with your family or just taking some time for yourself to work through your feelings and get yourself going again.

Sometimes breaking down is healthy, it can allow you to take stock of life, provide time to breathe and focus, but you must get going again. My advice to everyone this Easter would be to embrace the breakdowns and the flat tyres and find your own RAC for the heart.