"How do you do it?"

Without a doubt my second least favorite question (the first being "How are you (doing)?")

Why?

It's simple. I can't answer it (either one) honestly or easily. But I get the question quite often. I don't know why. Usually it has to do with Dan and for this reason he gets the question just as much as I do. "How do you deal with it?" "It," of course, being the fact that he spends 95% of his work day in a wheelchair so that he can spend 95% of the rest of his day out of it. "It" being the fact that the pain keeps him from sleeping well at night making him suseptible to illness, bad temper, and stress in a nasty cycle. "It" being the fact that he can never tell from one minute to the next what he'll have to endure or how to cope with it. This sounds like a lot and when I put it down in words it sounds like too much. I can see how people ask me (and him) the dreaded question. The only answer I can give is.... "I just do." I don't think about all of this and what it means. I take things day to day or minute to minute. I (try to) do what I can to make things that much easier for Dan and accept the rest. In a way this answer isn't honest, because in truth the answer should be, "I don't." I'll get to that in a minute.

Lately I've been getting it in another context. I have many responsibilities. I have two young children. I go to school full-time. I work part-time. I have callings (assignments for those of you who are unfamiliar with the word) in the Church. Many of these are fairly time consuming. And so people look at this and ask me the dreaded question. "How do you do it?" Again the answer I usually give is.... "I just do." For many of the reasons I list above I shrug it off and go on with life. But again the honest answer (and one I'm starting to give to others) is, "I don't." There are many things in my life that I should do that don't get done or get done less than perfectly (which is almost worse if you know anything about my personality). There are many things in my life that I should do that others do for me. For this I am deeply and eternally grateful to friends and family who support me. And lastly, there are many things in my life that I couldn't possibly do without faith and trust in my Heavenly Father who I know won't give me anything I can't handle without His help. I have received promises that I know He will keep as long as I hold up my end of the bargain. These covenants are another piece (the whole piece if you consider that the other pieces are only possible because of Him) of the answer to second hardest question for me to answer, "How do you do it?"