However, she’d found out fairly quickly how different it was at Hathaway House. And she was grateful for that; it made a huge working environment difference. Plus, she was starting to really care about Ryatt and to see him take steps to make changes. That was everything. She herself needed to keep up with him. Otherwise he would pass her, and she’d feel terrible. Here she was telling him to do something, and, if she wouldn’t do it herself, that didn’t make any sense either. She was still pondering that, when she met him for lunch.
“Now that’s a pensive look on your face,” he said in a teasing voice.
“And you’re still in a high-spirits mood.”
“Hey, my session went well today. I’m not in a ton of pain. I can see progress.” He had said it with such relish that she laughed out loud.
“I love that. I really do. That’s just amazing that you’re doing so well. I was thinking about that today. Like here, we’re talking about you making progress, and I was thinking of all the things in my life that maybe I needed to make progress on. Otherwise you’ll pass me by.”
“What’s this? A competition now?” he asked in a teasing voice.
“No, not at all. There is that sense about wanting to make sure that I do something worthy in my life too.”
“I think working here would be quite worthy enough. You are helping so many people.”
“I wonder,” she murmured. “Did you put any more thought into what you’ll do when this is over?”
“Not a whole lot yet. Trying to keep the stress down.”
She nodded. “Yet we’ve talked about home businesses several times.”
“And I keep thinking about it,” he said. “I’m not sure I’m ready for a solid indoor job. I’m used to being physically active on the job, so I’m not quite ready to just become a computer nerd.”
She grinned. “You see? That’s the kind of thinking that you need to do, to sort it out now, so that when you do whatever retraining, if you need retraining,” she added, “you pick something that you’ll be comfortable with, long-term.”
Ryatt wasn’t evensure yet what he wanted to do long-term, but the fact that she’d brought it up also made him realize that he was getting comfortable here now, and it was probably time forhim to get uncomfortable with that comfortableness. To be sure that he did consider what his future was and that it didn’t sneak up on him with the suddenness that everything here seemed to. An amazing amount of time had whipped past that he felt he needed to push forward and to consider some of his options.
When he was at the next shrink’s visit, this time with Dr. Sullivan, she told him, “I’m hearing good things about your PT progress.”
“Yes.” Ryatt gave her a fat smile. “And I’ll tell you that it feels really good to know that that’s happening.”
“Of course it does. So what else is on your mind these days?”
“My future,” he responded bluntly.
“Good call,” she replied. “That’s definitely facing you.”
“I know,” he agreed, “and that’s hard too because I’m not exactly sure what I want to do.”
“I don’t know that you have to decide right now, do you?”
“No, but I’d like to think that I’d have some idea, some inkling of where to go from here, before actually leaving Hathaway House.”
“If you’re ready to find out that direction, then great, but that doesn’t mean you should force yourself. Not yet.”
“And mostly I don’t feel like I am ready for the future focus,” he said, “but then I’m reminded of how much time has gone by and so fast that I almost panic and worry that I need to make a decision now.”
“And I don’t want you feeling like that,” she said. “You already have stress issues. Doing something like that could just make it worse.”
“Maybe,” he muttered. “It does seem to be a bit of an issue right now. Every once in a while I’m reminded that my time is passing so quickly and thenboom!I start to worry.”
“Right,” she agreed. “But, at the same time, as long as you’re thinking about it, and you’re open to options, I think that’s allthat’s required of you at the moment. And what are you thinking about, as far as options go?” Only simple curiosity filled her voice though. No judgment. No pressure.
He shrugged. “I was contemplating some online businesses. But I’m not sure I want that kind of a sedentary lifestyle.”
“Does it have to be sedentary? It seems like everybody does things from their phones all the time these days,” she suggested.
He stared at her. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of that, but you’re right. So much of business is just done on the phone, and I could certainly do that, while out and about.” He pondered it.