🏆🏆 POTTY WARS: BABY, TAKE TWO TROPHIES! 🧻🤣

Beloveds,

It is NOON.

And apparently today we are going to church, therapy, physical rehabilitation, philosophy class AND the bathroom.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Pearl clutchers:

Secure the pearls.

Because Cassandra has an announcement.

I WON POTTY WARS.

🏆🏆

Yes.

TWO TROPHIES.

One trophy did not adequately represent the level of foolishness, determination, engineering, cleanup supplies, prayer, improvisation and sheer GET SOME ACT RIGHT required for this particular championship.

🤣🧻🧽🧴🪣🪣🪣

And before somebody says:

But Cassandra, you just went to the bathroom…

👀

YOU TRIED IT.

🤣🤣🤣

There is no “just” in somebody else’s body.

That may be today’s biggest key.

🔑

Before my stroke, there were things my body did without requiring a committee meeting.

Now some ordinary tasks require planning.

Positioning.

Balance.

Equipment.

Patience.

Adaptation.

Concentration.

Energy.

Problem-solving.

And occasionally enough cleaning supplies to make somebody walking past my door wonder whether I have secretly opened a janitorial franchise.

🤣🤣🤣

🧽🧴🪣🧻

But here’s the thing:

I DID IT.

And I’m learning not to make my victories smaller merely because somebody else can accomplish the same thing without thinking about it.

That is a chain.

⛓️

And I am done polishing chains.

⚒️

The chain that says:

If everybody else can do it easily, your accomplishment doesn’t count.

⚒️💥

The chain that says:

Needing equipment diminishes the accomplishment.

⚒️💥

The chain that says:

Accepting help cancels independence.

⚒️💥

The chain that says:

Disability must disappear before somebody gets to call something recovery.

⚒️💥

The chain that says:

Bodies doing bodily things are too embarrassing to talk about.

BABY.

🤣

Hand me the hammer.

⚒️💥⛓️

Because dignity was never hiding inside physical perfection.

My dignity did not leave when my body changed.

My dignity does not disappear when I use my wheelchair.

My dignity does not disappear when I use my quad cane.

My dignity does not disappear when something takes me longer.

My dignity does not disappear when I need help.

My dignity does not disappear when my body makes a mess.

And my dignity certainly does not disappear because toilet paper entered the testimony.

🧻🤣🏆

PERIODT.

There are victories people applaud because everybody recognizes them.

Graduation.

🏆

Promotion.

🏆

Marathon.

🏆

Championship.

🏆

And then there are victories almost nobody sees.

Getting dressed.

🏆

Getting yourself something to eat.

🏆

Making it safely across the room.

🏆

Learning how to do something differently.

🏆

Using the mobility aid instead of exhausting yourself trying to prove you don’t need it.

🏆

Asking for help.

🏆

Cleaning yourself.

🏆

Getting through an exhausting appointment.

🏆

Trying again after yesterday went completely sideways.

🏆

And sometimes—

GOING TO THE BATHROOM.

🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Count it.

Because difficulty is experienced from inside the life being lived.

You cannot stand outside another person’s body, history, grief, circumstances, disability, resources or exhaustion and announce what should have been easy.

You don’t know the cost.

🔑

And THAT reaches far beyond disability.

Maybe somebody got out of bed while carrying grief nobody knows about.

🏆

Maybe somebody answered the phone after weeks of anxiety.

🏆

Maybe somebody said no.

🏆

Maybe somebody finally said yes.

🏆

Maybe somebody left.

🏆

Maybe somebody stayed.

🏆

Maybe somebody apologized.

🏆

Maybe somebody forgave themselves.

🏆

Maybe somebody asked for help before everything collapsed.

🏆

Maybe somebody finally stopped.

✋🏿

That last one has my attention today.

Because after all my:

DEEPPPERRRR!

⚒️⚒️⚒️

FIND THE KEYS!

🔑🔑🔑

BREAK THE CHAINS!

⛓️⛓️⛓️

LOVE THE WHOLE WORLD!

🌎🌎🌎

Apparently my body convened an emergency meeting.

The agenda contained exactly one item:

BED.

🛌

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

And Cassandra?

Apparently I voted unanimously.

😴

No closing remarks.

No benediction.

No final post.

No “one more thing.”

Just:

🛌💤

🤣🤣🤣

And perhaps THAT deserves a trophy too.

🏆

Because I am learning that I cannot celebrate my body’s victories while treating its limits like insubordination.

WHEW.

Read that again.

I cannot celebrate my body’s victories while treating its limits like insubordination.

🔑🔑🔑

Sometimes the key is:

🥾 Go.

Sometimes:

⚒️ Work.

Sometimes:

🚪 Open it.

Sometimes:

🗣️ Speak.

Sometimes:

😭 Cry.

Sometimes:

🤣 Laugh until your stomach hurts.

And sometimes:

✋🏿 Enough.

Then:

🛌 Rest.

The key doesn’t always open a door leading outward.

Sometimes the key locks the door for the night.

🔑🚪

👀

Ohhhhh.

There’s one.

Sometimes agency means opening the door.

And sometimes agency means being the person who decides:

The door is closed. I am resting. Come back tomorrow.

✋🏿🚪🛌

That is still agency.

That is still dignity.

That is still freedom.

And that means today’s Potty Wars trophy isn’t really about a toilet.

The bathroom just happened to be where the lesson showed up wearing combat boots.

🤣🥾🥾🧻

The deeper victory is this:

My changed body and I are learning each other.

Not fighting each other.

Learning.

Listening.

Adapting.

Negotiating.

Laughing.

Resting.

Trying.

Stopping.

Beginning again.

And sometimes standing together afterward looking at the evidence like:

👀

Girl.

🤣🤣🤣

WE DID THAT.

🏆🏆

So today I am taking my trophies.

I am taking my laughter.

I am taking my quad cane.

I am taking my rest.

I am taking my keys.

And yes—

somebody please bring the toilet paper.

🧻

Because apparently around here liberation requires supplies.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Beloveds, I want you to take your trophy too.

Not tomorrow.

Not when somebody else agrees that your accomplishment was difficult enough.

Not after you explain yourself.

Today.

🏆

Whatever your victory was.

However strange.

However private.

However ordinary.

However messy.

COUNT IT.

And if today’s victory was simply surviving today?

There is a chair here.

🪑

Sit.

If you believe in God as I do, you are welcome to celebrate His faithfulness with me.

WON’T HE DO IT! 🙏🏿💖

And if you don’t believe in God, don’t believe yet, aren’t sure, or never will—

the chair does not disappear.

🪑

Nobody has to believe exactly as I believe before I can love them.

Come laugh.

Come rest.

Come tell your story.

Or say absolutely nothing.

🥂

The celebration still has room for you.

Now I need to know:

What completely ordinary thing have YOU done that deserves an absolutely unreasonable, ridiculously oversized trophy?

🏆🏆🏆🤣

Tell me in the comments.

Let’s celebrate some victories the world forgot to count.

Share this with somebody whose invisible work deserves to be seen. Like it. Follow or subscribe. And come back tomorrow at noon.

We’ll pull out the chair again.

And apparently—

🧻

we’ll keep the supplies nearby.

🤣🤣🤣

Asking for A Friend,
Cassandra

#YourLifeMattersToMe

Note: One step. One step. One step. You are loved. You are NOT alone. Keep on being…YOU!

Unapologetically His.
Unapologetically yours.