This is Day 30 of the Positive 100, a countdown to Rare Disease Day 2014 and an exercise in being positive despite it all.
Do you still look at the world with wonder? Do you still tinker or doodle? Do you visit museums or travel? Do you read new books?
This is Day 29 of the Positive 100, a countdown to Rare Disease Day 2014 and an exercise in being positive despite it all.
We are so very often looking for something shiny and new that we forget to look back at the past and think about all the moments that made us smile. Our histories built us and our histories make us stronger. But sometimes, the best part, is that the let us see just how loved we are.
These knitting needles are some of my most treasured possessions, although I am not entirely certain that I should call them mine. They were my grandmother’s and technically they still belong to my mom. (Let me point out that possession is 9/10ths of the law, and currently they are in mine…) They made it my way when I decided I wanted to knit again when I was in the hospital Freshman year of college.
My mom taught me how to knit as a kid, and I knit for a little while in high school, where it was the epitome of un-cool. But I enjoyed it. So, I picked it back up when I needed something to distract my brain during those long days. As I started to knit more and more, I collected more of the knitting needles from my mom’s collection. One pair at a time, they made their way to me.
Every time I knit with a pair, I am reminded of the women who used them before me. The grandmother I was too young to remember and the mother who would do anything for me.
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This is Day 28 of the Positive 100, a countdown to Rare Disease Day 2014 and an exercise in being positive despite it all.
With the risk of sounding of like a cheese inspirational poster, I am going to put it out there in big bold letters.
Life is a journey. Not all who wander are lost. Take the path less traveled. Enjoy the ride.
Now that we have the cliches out of the way, we can be serious about the journey. The trips we take that are filled with ups and downs and bumps and twists. The one where the map we have isn’t always the clearest.
All of our journeys are unique and inevitably we will make a wrong turn or be forced to take a detour. Some days we are traveling with a whole set of luggage, some days it is just a backpack. (What do you say, time to write a cheesy self-help book?).
In all seriousness, some days you do need to step back and look at the overall journey and see past the small segment that is today, this month or even this year. Being sick, dealing with tragedy, broken hearts and even career paths that just aren’t right can make you feel like you have lost your way.
You probably aren’t running in circles or moving backwards. Every morning that you wake up and take a breath is a positive moment. Follow that with a few steps and you are on your way.
My journey hasn’t always been the clearest and my path has often taken me the long way around. When I went to college, I decided to major in fashion design at a small, all-girl Catholic college in Milwaukee. Because studying Graphic Design at a big university would have been the obvious choice. Somehow I ended up with a French & International Marketing degree from the University of Illinois. I worked at Career Builder and Porsche before I realized just how badly I messed up my career choice.
I have been unemployed twice since graduating in 2007. Some days I find myself wondering turning down that job offer from Google was really the smart choice.
Oh, there was the day that my hands froze up from a toxic build up of medication in my system. The diminished control I had felt in my hands from migraine meds finally stopped them from working for a good 12 hours. I still can’t draw like I did before I started those medications and I probably never will.
I dated someone for 5 years that I was certain I was going to marry. It didn’t matter that the relationship wasn’t right or that I wasn’t myself in it. But when it was over I sure knew a whole heck of a lot about me.
I was in a car accident and they told my parents I might not ever walk again, so I ran a few 5Ks. Then I injured my knee and developed a progressive and incurable neurological condition.
A temporary stay with my parents that was supposed to last six months has now turned in to two years. Partially because of that break up, but mostly because there was no way I could have taken care of myself for most of those years.
I’ve been a blonde, a brunette and a red head with every shade of red hair imaginable. I have been morbidly obese and even a healthy weight. I have spent weeks at a time in the hospital and recently I became part cyborg.
I’ve had to use emergency epinephrine at work and have a coworker take me to the ER and I have had kick ass meetings with clients where I get to use this little brain of mine to help them create awesome websites. I’ve broken down because no one understood why just a salad on pizza for everyone else day finally got to me.
I’ve lost all of my grandparents, including the bonus ones. I’ve lost an aunt and several close friends. I’ve had my name trashed on the web because someone set their fans after me for a negative review of their book.
I speak three languages and have received honors for my French skills, had my photography published, been featured on design inspiration sites and won awards for my portfolio.
You might say there have been a few ups and downs and more than a couple twists and turns. They are painful when they happen and it can be damn hard to find your way back to the path and maybe you have to walk through that patch of poison ivy to get there.
It can be done. I know because I have done it. In college when I hated the school I chose or after when I hated my first job, I found my way. When my body failed me time after time, I found my way. I know you can find yours too.
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This is Day 27 of the Positive 100, a countdown to Rare Disease Day 2014 and an exercise in being positive despite it all.
Mornings are full of promise. A clean slate and a fresh start. Your morning can set the tone for your entire day. If you wake up and start the day with a smile, it is undoubtedly going to go better than if you started the day wearing your crabby pants. And I would know, some days I feel like my crabby pants might be my favorite pants.
This is Day 26 of the Positive 100, a countdown to Rare Disease Day 2014 and an exercise in being positive despite it all.
We all have rough patches and days we wish would just go away. There are times in our lives that we where we start to be worn down. You know the days. When you feel like you are just treading water and it is just getting harder and harder to keep your head above the water.
This is Day 25 of the Positive 100, a countdown to Rare Disease Day 2014 and an exercise in being positive despite it all.
I have some friends who will not be fans of today’s topic. But it is important that I distinguish between faith and religion from the get go. Faith is a belief in something. Yourself. A higher power. An energy. God. Several gods. Religion is the organization of beliefs and rules.
This is about faith. And believing things. You know, without proof.
Faith isn’t about mysticism locked behind a church door. It is taking all those other things, the hope, the strength, the friends and the family and using them to keep the faith. The faith in yourself that keeps you driving forward. The faith in the good of the world that lets you pay it forward to someone in need.
By having (and keeping) faith in good and ourselves we are building a better world.
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This is Day 23 of the Positive 100, a countdown to Rare Disease Day 2014 and an exercise in being positive despite it all.
Light. It can refer to hope. To god. To a flashlight. And all of those are useful. Today, though, I am talking about the hope kind of light.
“Happiness can be found in the darkest of places if one only remembers to turn on the light.” – Albus Dumbledore
Oh, Dumbledore. One of the wisest characters of my childhood. Darkness does not rule us. Sadness should not consume us. All hope is never lost. You can always turn on the light. Literal or metaphorical.
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This is Day 23 of the Positive 100, a countdown to Rare Disease Day 2014 and an exercise in being positive despite it all.
There are so very many wise words out there. Words that help us navigate our paths. That help us see past our current troubles. That offer comfort when we are sad. I was torn if I wanted to share the wisdom of Dumbledore or Gandhi. Obama or Lincoln. Mother Theresa or MammaCakes. I decided none of them were quite right today.
This is Day 22 of the Positive 100, a countdown to Rare Disease Day 2014 and an exercise in being positive despite it all.
Our feet take us where we are going. (Mostly literally, sometimes metaphorically). It might just be a walk down the hall. Or a couple blocks to work from the train. Or it might be a marathon. You might be walking to find your heart and where you belong or running towards something with reckless abandon.
This is Day 21 of the Positive 100, a countdown to Rare Disease Day 2014 and an exercise in being positive despite it all.
Hope is facing the day with the belief that things can get better. Goals are the lamp posts on that journey. Dreams are an escape. A maybe someday kind of situation.