Keep on Dreamin'

When it comes to life and all the things you wish it entailed, dreaming is believing and believing is achieving! Having aspirations in life to work towards, goals to conquer, and fears to overcome is undoubtedly one of the most important things in leading a strong minded and positively happy life!

You, yourself are your biggest distraction. There are always going to be obstacles in your path, there will always be excuses to be made, life's karmic effect will surely happen at least twice; but the thing that will beat you down the most is your own negative thinking. The world that we live in today is filled with negativity that is constantly being thrown in your face. Newspapers, TV, radio; some form of negative media is almost always being absorbed by your body. And whether you choose to believe it or not it takes its toll on you, secretly seeping into your brain attacking your joy receptors. Positivity, after all, is your best friend!


As a child everyone dreams of what they want to be when they grow up. Of course not many of us actually follow through and become cowboys or Disney princess's but we had the right idea. We all had that imaginary job or person who we envisioned to become that made us happy. Simply happy! We weren't worried about money or bills, social acceptance or approval. And that's what we all need to remember! Yeah, we do all grow up and the real world that is all about money and time smacks us in the face but that shouldn't take away from our happiness. For those of us who had our imaginary dreaming days cut short by the real world of a chronic illness (or anything else for that matter) we to quickly learned that life is not all peaches and cream. There is a large group of people that never had the chance to experience growing up or go through the stepping stones to building dreams and how to achieve them. That's why I think it is all the more important for those people to not let their dreams wither away.

So if life has dealt you a folding hand and your dreams haves dwindled, at least save them from shriveling up and dying. Revitalize your dreams by pursuing them as a passion or hobby if nothing more. Yeah if your dream was to become an astronaut or pterodactyl you may find difficulty in taking that up on an amateur level. But don't let negativity push you away from what you love. If nothing more you can get a season pass to the planetarium or prehistoric museum. And if you can't quite make those dreams come true just yet, keep fueling them with love and positivity and hopefully one day soon your dreams will come true.

Your dreams are yours and yours alone! So if you don't keep hold of them in hopes of achievement then who will?

Life Is A Puzzle

The meaning of life is an enigmatic thought that can be examined and questioned until the end of time. Life can be broken down into textbook understandings and yet still leave thinkers in a reverie daze. When looking at life through a looking glass in a metaphoric way we can much more clearly see how everything in life, every decision we make has meaning in our lives. 

 Life is a puzzle with millions of pieces that intricately fit together to form a picture that hasn’t even been created. Every moment of our lives, every challenge we overcome, and every diagnoses we may receive is one piece closer to completing our life’s puzzle. 

When we are born we are simply a pile of puzzle pieces. As we grow and experience life pieces start to link together and a small glimpse of the overall picture may be seen. Even when we are putting our puzzles together there are those difficult places that take longer to find the missing pieces. Those moments are the struggles we will face in life. We will have hard times, perhaps we are diagnosed with an illness, but even a diagnosis is a missing piece found. Once we have that one piece in place the picture will become a little clearer and other pieces will more easily connect. All the puzzle pieces that we will have to acquire may not be the prettiest or easiest to find but everyone is essential! We can’t skip steps or try to make shortcuts when solving a puzzle; it simple won’t turn out right. That is exactly how our lives are! Some puzzle pieces may look perfect and we are so overjoyed when we finally find them and despite trying to squish them into place, they just won’t work. As the picture becomes more complete the pieces will start to fall into place more quickly. We just have to keep trying, piece after piece until we figure it out.

And when your puzzle is nearly complete or if you are just starting out, if you feel like you still have missing pieces that’s ok. I have accepted that I will always have a missing piece to my puzzle, a certain unknown factor in my life and that is just fine with me.

No matter how many pieces are missing to the puzzle the picture will always be beautiful!

Ode to Friends: Friends Through Sickness and Health

Part 2

Younger people with a chronic illness often lose a lot of their friends after becoming ill. When you are no longer able to keep up with your friends at the same pace and take part in the things they do you begin to see less and less of each other. This is hard for a young person who is sick. Not only are we dealing with the physical and emotional stress of being ill but we also have to deal with our routines and environments rapidly changing. For those that become sick to the point that they are no longer able to go to school or work, they lose all social contact with the outside world. And I’m sure the friends do not intentionally neglect or ignore you, but they have busy lives and have to carry on. This is just life. 

So most often we turn to social networking to find new friends. I think this is a great thing because we are able to find people that are dealing with the same disease and issues through support groups. I highly recommend this! Some of the people I have met online that have Lyme Disease are now some of my closest friends. When you are young and going through a disease it is very reassuring to have a friend that is going through the same thing, it kind of reminds you that it’s not just you that’s this way. One possible bad thing about completely converting to social networking is that you tend to become emotionally invested in your computer and the people that live in it. (Trust me I’m not saying that’s entirely bad, nor do I mean that in a hypocritical way because that statement includes me.) I think it is important to get out and stay in touch with your ‘normal healthy’ friends as much as possible to give you a since of normalcy and stability. But for those that can’t get out of bed and are house bound the computer becomes your world. 

And when people begin to get better and are able to socialize more I think it is important to remember that you are different than your ‘normal’ friends. They haven’t been through an illness and they may not understand how to cope with that. So give them some time to get readjusted to the idea of you being back to normal. I think when we get so close to our Lymie friends we tend to forget that most people don’t understand what we mean when we talk backwards or blurt out a list of supplements we are on or how we can’t tell if we are herxing or dying. 

So don’t completely give up on your ‘normal’ friends if you kind of part your ways once you get sick, there are a few good ones out there. And if your friends have stuck with you through thick and thin, sickness and health, keep them around because they are few and far between. And if your friends have parted ways with you, don't worry. It may hurt for a while but they obviously weren't worth the effort. It's important for all friendships to be two-sided and not one. Everyone needs emotional support from friends at some point, so if your friends aren't willing to give you that in the time that you need it most (when you are sick) then heck with them. Don't let their negativity drain you, just move on to better and brighter friendships. 

To new and old friendships, may they always keep you bright and happy hearted and always reaching for the stars.

 

Ode to a Best Friend: Friends Through Thick and Thin

Part 1

In a lifetime one meets and forms bonds with quite an eclectic group of people. You may even be lucky enough to have several best friends throughout many years. But for some, friends are somewhat disposable as we grow older. I on the other hand have been abundantly blessed with a best friend that the word amazing is just not sufficient enough for. 

We met in the 3^rd grade through another friend one day after school and quickly clicked. Ironically enough we actually lived right down the street from one another. Through the years we have become more than friends, we are like family. Even though we didn’t always go to the same school, or live in the same town we always stayed friends. Connected at the somewhat sappy heart and overly witty sarcastic mind, we just couldn’t be separated. Today, over 12 years later we are still two peas in a pod. 

When it comes to true friends no disagreement, distance, or length of time will weather a real friendship. My best friend is a testament to all of that. We met just after I became sick, and through all the years of doctors and me being sick, she was always there. I think it is safe to say she is the only person that would come visit you in the hospital on your birthday, throw you a surprise party in your hospital room, and make you a play-doh cupcake because you can’t eat real cake! That’s a true friend right there! 

She has an amazing understanding of my situation and doesn’t judge or put me down because I can’t do all the things that other people my age can. Plus the fact that she is willing to drive an hour to come visit me, sometimes to just sit and talk to me says just how great she is. Most ‘friends’ wouldn’t go through the hassle of lugging a wheelchair in and out of a car and pushing me through a store, but her, she does it without saying a word. She is the one person that gets me being sick and doesn’t make me feel bad. She knows the sickness but she also knows me and never forgets that those are two different things! To say thank you for her friendship would never be enough.

So when you are having a down day in the dark always look toward your friends to lend you a shining star!