I flipped on the TV yesterday to a movie I have not seen in years, since before I was sick, actually. Born On The 4th Of July. Oh it didn't take me more than 20 minutes to find that gratitude and gratefulness I have been so desperately seeking. I can handle my problems, I thought to myself after watching Tom Cruise try and navigate life in a wheelchair. My problems are mine and I own them. But what the guy whose life the movie was based on struggles with, oh no I could not do that. Slowly the wheels in my head ground to a screeching halt and started turning in a positive direction for a change. I felt my burden lift and the immediacy of my misery vacate. Finally. Well if I would've known this movie would help me so much I would have put it on weeks ago! And still happier I became when I was able to swallow and accept that indeed, any number of catastrophic and horrible things could happen to me on any given day. But not today, not right now, so why am I worrying about a future I cannot control? After trauma hits is when to deal with it, but not today, not in my precious present!
What this whole experience served to show me is the importance of being honest and feeling those feelings, no matter how unpleasant they may be. For if you don't acknowledge them how can you deal with them and move past it? This is a process. A never ending process as we cycle through life with something pretty devastating in its own right. When I started this blog it was with absolute honesty. I ripped open my guts and poured them out. It hasn't always been pretty, or cheerful and uplifting. Quite frankly if that was all I gave I would want to smack myself for being so obnoxious. While I do try and search for silver linings I also have no interest in the fake or forced in life. What you get from me is real. The good, bad and ugly of the ups and downs and sideways progress of a female living with Fibromyalgia.
Thanks for joining,
Leah
I was diagnosed 15 years ago but have had symptoms most of my life. I find that some days I can deal with whatever comes my way. Other days like Leah said I want to wallow in pity for myself and cry. I know there are those less fortunate, but on those days when even a bra hurts too much I'm pissed at the world. It's a daily struggle to keep your spirits up, try not to depress your family or burden them with the jobs you can't do any longer, and deal with pain, dizziness etc. But, I can tell you I celebrate every good day. I thank God when I can get out to church, grocery shop, or go visiting. It's not easy.....but, we are fighters. We have to be. Gentle hugs and wishes for a glorious day.
ReplyDeleteIt's so hard to count our blessings when we are in constant pain, but I got a dose of reality last year when my mother lost her leg and almost her life to cancer and my best friend's breast cancer metastasized and became terminal.
ReplyDeleteI still have my pain and aggravation because of it, but I try to keep it in perspective with the fact that I will eventually lose these two most important people in my life and much sooner than I should.
Does anyone else wish that fibromyalgia was taken as a more serious disease, since we have to live with it all of our lives, decades for some?