Dear Moms,

First, I want to warn you about this post. For those who know me in real life, it will come as a shocker.  Even if you just know me from this blog, it will come as a shocker. Because I am going to tell you something that a lot of people don’t admit. Today, I am here to tell you to take off the cape. And know that it’s okay.

The cape I’m referring to is the SuperWoman cape. It needs to come off now. Really, it does. And I’m sharing this because I’ve recently discovered that if I don’t take it off, there is a Higher Power in the universe that will snatch if off of me. And sometimes snatching can be a bit painful.

In July, I went to the doctor and he strongly encouraged me to make some lifestyle changes. I know I’m sugar-coating it, but if you want the sordid details, read this. Kind of felt like he snatched my cape. He did tell me to decrease the amount of stress in my life and let go of the things I needed to let go.

And I did that. Kind of.

You see, I did take a short leave from work. But as I was off work, I thought about all of the things I needed to do to at home. Like I made a super list. And I immediately began to accomplish things on that list. And I was proud of myself. Really proud.

Because I truly believed — deep, down in my heart — that letting things go at work meant keeping things going (and even getting ahead of the game) at home. But somehow I don’t think that’s what was supposed to happen.

Have you heard the saying “a hard head makes for a soft behind?” My head and my behind have first hand experience with it. A couple of weeks ago as I was accomplishing items on my super to-do list, I took a trip to the grocery store.

In my haste to enter the store and accomplish all the things I needed to get done that day, I tripped. And fell. Not a graceful fall, but a crazy-I-was-tangled-up in the shopping-cart-fall. That ended with a knot on my head, a sore behind, a swollen ankle, and a stiff knee.

Yep. All of this after the doctor told me to take it easy.

Once the shopping cart and I ended our brief affair and I made it home, I thought of one thing. “I am not SuperWoman. I need to sit down and stay sitting.” So I surrendered my cape.

And I’ve never felt better. Surrendering the cape makes me think about something realistically before I say yes. Surrendering the cape allows me to get a full night’s rest. And surrendering the cape allows to me to be okay with not doing everything. And sometimes it’s okay to no do anything.

Especially if hard heads and soft behinds are involved.

If you have more thoughts about this, feel free to comment below. Have you missed some of our posts? Here are three recent ones: