Category Archives: Inspiration

Deep Connections and “The Good Parts”

Quotations are the lyrics for “The Good Parts” by Andy Grammer.

I’m sorry if I seem impatient
I’m not a fan of pleasantries
See, I get bored with the weather and what’s in the news
The topics we all hide beneath

Small talk is not a strong suite of mine. It makes me awkward. I don’t like to talk about the news at all, because I don’t watch it (it’s always so dang negative). The weather is the weather, and boring to talk about – I also love pretty much all weather to some degree, while most people want to complain about it. Continue reading →

“Grieving The Life I Once Had” – from HuffPost

A little while ago, I read this post on HuffPost:

Grieving the Life I Once Had
by Naomi Sakin

(I actually got there from Dysautonomia International‘s Facebook page.)

Facebook is really the only way I get any of my news. The only news source I follow directly is National Geographic, and that’s primarily because I have admired their photography for as long as I can remember. Anyway, that’s off topic.

The article, is heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking because it’s real. So devastatingly and painfully real. You don’t find out what she has until the end, but it doesn’t matter. I think anyone with a chronic condition can relate, especially one that you weren’t born with, or that you were born with that didn’t get diagnosed or show up until later in life, or one that changed as you grew, or one that is progressive that suddenly throws you curve balls that alter your day-to-day. Really, anyone. Anyone that no longer can do what they used to.

Take caution reading the article. If you are fragile, you will cry. I teared up, but luckily I’m not doing too badly, mentally, right this moment so I didn’t lose it. Yesterday, I would have flat out bawled for hours.

I am kind of proud as to what my unconscious and fingers decided to add to my Facebook share and wanted to share it with you:

The life we once lived gets torn from us in an instant. The life we once lived gets replaced by pain and pills. Still, we are somehow expected to carry on. We adjust, and we move forward.
– Elizabeth Bulfer

Sometimes, we don’t know how we move forward, but we always seem to move forward. That’s why I started this blog: to move forward, to remember to always move forward, to give me a reason to move forward (if only to make one more post), and to remind others to move forward.

Together, we can carry the enormous weight of these illnesses and our grief.

Together, let’s move forward.

Featured Image from the article

Just Breathe – Great Art for Chronics

 

Just a friendly reminder from one Chronic to another: Sometimes, you just have to take a second and just breathe.

This is also available as a wood wall hanging and on a spiral bound notebook!

Unexpected Perspective Shift

I don’t believe in failure
Cause I know the smallest voices, they can make it major

-from “Seven Years” by Lukas Graham-

I heard this song for the first time today. I was in the car, driving home from school. This song is a really good song, with a unique beat and beautiful, heartfelt lyrics. The DJ had compared it to the “100 Years” by Five for Fighting. I wouldn’t put it quite at the same level, but it’s very similar in a lot of ways. But this specific quote really struck me at the time. I just watched the video a second time and didn’t notice it as clearly. Obviously, it was one of those things I really needed to notice at the time.

Click Here to read how this quote shifted my perspective

I wanted to share a few photos from our trip to Beaver Creek with the in-laws 🙂 The people that went were: Becky (my mother-in-law), Shelby (sister-in-law), Jimmy (Shelby’s boyfriend), Dave (brother-in-law), Claire (Dave’s roommate), Dan, and myself. We got up there Saturday afternoon, and just hung out at the condo and had a nice dinner. Sunday (Jan 3) we went ice skating, then went tubing at Vail. Monday we went skiing. Tuesday we checked out about 10 and drove home!

Ice Skating – Sunday, January 3rd

Ice skating in the middle of Beaver Creek Village!
Dan actually seems to know what he’s doing!
It’s really hard to take a selfie facing into the sun on reflective ice…
I LOVE this photo of me 🙂
I was coming in a little too hot… totally almost hit Dan 😛 I thought this face was hilarious!
See? I was pretty dang close haha
Handsome hubby
Very nice of Dan to trade me his thin gloves for my thick mittens… it was really warm in the sun
Swish!
We were actively skating when I took this, which was quite difficult…

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Beaver Creek Vacation – photos

Some Realistic 2016 Goals

I hate doing resolutions, really hate them. Growing up, I always felt like they were silly; why are all these people making these lofty promises that they couldn’t keep even if they tried?! However, being online means I’m assaulted by wave upon wave of resolutions from every corner of the internet. They are still (usually) crazy and out there resolutions, but they make me think about what I would like 2016 to look like for myself. So here is a small list of realistic goals (I refuse to call them resolutions) that I would like to accomplish in 2016.

Continue reading →

So I took a ton of photos at Zion National Park. Here are a few of my favorites:

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Zion National Park Photos

It’s Giving Tuesday

I hadn’t even heard of Giving Tuesday until today… apparently, I’ve been living under a rock? I think I just have difficulty keeping track of which “named” days get added onto this specific part of the season…

Anyway, Giving Tuesday makes me feel much better about the world than the others. One invisible illness blogger I read regularly, Let’s Feel Better by Ilana, also works for the Global Genes Project. She wrote about the work they do and some of the non-profits they work with!

Check out Ilana’s Giving Tuesday post!

Featured in Ilana’s post: Dysautonomia International, Jeffery Modell Foundation, EB Research Partner (EB is the “butterfly” condition)