Keep some of you...

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I recently read an article, where musician Alicia Keys quoted advice she received from Oprah: "Keep some of you for you."  I immediately recognized the reasonableness of this from the standpoint of super stardom.  Yet, that bit of advice resonated with me on a much smaller scale: everyday life for ordinary women.  Women traditionally take on the role of caregivers: taking care of their children, spouse, homes, and when the need arises, their parents.  In most cases,  women are also working a job (or two) outside the home. On top of all this, you might also be the voice of reason, the shoulder to cry on, the one everyone seeks out when they have problems.

Having to spread themselves so thin in the seemingly never ending quest to get it all done, women usually neglect to take care of themselves.  All of this comes at a high price--according to the FDA, "more women die from heart disease than from anything else."  We're taking such good care of everyone and everything else that it is literally killing us.  If one of our kids shows even the slightest need for medical attention, we are right on the case, making a doctor's appointment.  However, when we have the nagging feeling that something is physically wrong, we reason that we just don't have the time to go and get it checked out.  The idea to "keep some of you for you" is necessary.  You can only give so much of yourself.  It is so important to take time out to replenish yourself and recharge your batteries.  Doing so is not an act of selfishness;it is an act of self-preservation.