I think this is the perfect “Keep Calm” poster for anyone. Healthy, sick, stressed, happy, whatever – no matter what is going on in your life, it is likely to change.
So if you are in the midst of something great right now, remember “this too shall pass” and spend some time being grateful. And if you are struggling and feeling low, hold on longer because “this too shall pass”.
The HAWMC topic for today is to write a haiku about your health focus. I hate haiku (haikus?) – see I don’t even know what the plural of “haiku” is, nor do I really care. LOL For some reason I’ve always hated them. I knew that when I got out of school, I would never write another haiku. Because this is my blog and I can write whatever I want here, today I decided to write a silly poem about my feelings about the dreaded haiku.
So without further ado,
here is my poem, “I Hate Haiku.”
I hate haiku.
I really do.
I won’t write one.
I won’t write two.
WEGO asked me to follow through.
But I won’t, not even for you.
I tried in school.
I looked a fool.
“Oh my!” the teacher said, ”This just won’t do.”
“Oh and this, it’s wrong too.”
And with that,
out the dreaded red pen came.
There I sat,
as she said my name.
I don’t get it, “What’s the point?” I said.
I’d really rather go back to bed.
Than write a haiku,
even for you.
I hate haiku.
I really do.
I won’t write one.
I won’t write two.
My school days are through.
There will be no more haiku.
Today’s HAWMC post is supposed to be inspired by a photograph.
Years ago, when I was a kid, my mother planted some red tulips around a maple tree on the property. I recall them blooming a few times. I think my Mom kept a little green wire fence around them. Later on, I don’t know what happened to the little wire fence, but the tulips kept getting accidentally cut down before they got going each spring. For many many years I thought they had all died out.
Conditions this winter were very unique. Most of the winter was much warmer than usual. Spring started very early, with plenty of rain and sun. We had temps in the 80′s before it was even time for grass cutting.
And up popped a red tulip. After all those years.
So much time had passed, literally decades, since it had bloomed.
Yet there it is, this year. As big and bright as ever. Maybe brighter.
That red tulip must have been sitting there, under the ground all these years.
Sustained by something and waiting on just the right circumstances to flourish.
I found the red tulip inspirational.
I wanted to photograph it up close. But I am unable to walk to where it is.
The best I could manage is these shots, taken with a long lens.
Maybe I’ll be like that tulip someday.
My fence went away. I’ve been cut back time and time again.
I’ve also been sustained in faith, during my struggles.
Maybe someday the circumstances will be just right and I’ll go into remission.
And be as healthy and as bright as ever.
Today’s topic from #HAWMC is … If you had a superpower, what would it be?
This question is so easy for me to answer. If I had a superpower, I would want it to be the power to heal.
Just imagine how wonderful that would be! I could heal others from their burdens, and lighten the load for many. I could free my daughter to talk again. She could tell me how she was thinking and feeling. She could annoy her older siblings with endless chatter.
I could heal myself. I could walk as far as I wanted. I could climb mountains again. Eat normally. Sit with my family in the hot summer sun and not feel like I was going to die.
I could free my loved ones from things that burden them. I could free my cousin from debilitating migraines. I could free my friends, both local and afar. I could free strangers, anyone in need of help and healing.
We could all be together, healthy and well.
I know I don’t have a superpower, but it is fun to imagine all the good you could do in the world, if you had the superpower to heal.
I may not have that superpower. But God does. There are miracles every single day. Some in shocking ways, others are more subtle, but just as important. And sometimes we go through struggles for a reason. Sometimes we come to understand those reasons, and sometimes we don’t.
I may not have the superpower to heal, but I do have the power to hope.
I have the power to hope, to pray, to love, and to believe in a better future.
Over on EnduringtheSilence.com I completed this same prompt, with a quote that is very near and dear to my heart. But here, I thought I would share with you a quote that inspired me recently to take a leap into a new project.
For years I have dealt with allergies on some level or another. Eventually my allergies became extremely severe. I hate them. I hate the impact they have on my life and the lives of those near and dear to me. And I hate talking about them.
But…I can’t resist trying to help someone if they need it. So many times in recent years I have found myself trying to assist others who are “newbies” to the world of allergies. Sometimes it is an adult, but often times it is a parent – trying to manage their young child’s allergies when they have no clue how to do so, and some of them aren’t getting much advice from their child’s doctors on how to manage things.
Management and the creation of a healthy, preventative lifestyle, is extremely important for both health and safety. I cannot bear to hear of a child that is screaming and crying all the time or itching all the time, because of allergies that the parent just has not been educated on how to manage.
For at least 5 years people have been trying to get me to write about allergies. When I started my first blog (the nature blog), people said, “You should be doing an allergy blog.”
When I started DorkyDeb people said, “Are you going to talk about allergies there?” I said, “Probably not.” They said, “Why?” I said, “Because I hate talking about allergies. Allergies take up enough of my life already. The last thing I want to think about when I get online, is allergies.”
When I started EnduringTheSilence, a blog about autism, I got the same flack….”When are you going to write about allergies?” And my response was, “Probably never.”
Some people told me, “Do you realize how much you helped me? You could help a lot more people too.” Admittedly, that one made me feel bad. I do like helping people. And I do know that adequate informational resources for those with multiple severe allergies, are few and far between. But I still didn’t want to talk about it. It’s not fun being the freak that became allergic to so many things. It’s bad enough I have to explain that situation to the people that I do, I don’t want to talk about that with the world.
But then one day I was listening to one of my favorite preachers, Joyce Meyer, and she was talking about taking what appears like a negative in your life and working it into something good – something to help other people. Have you ever had one of those moments when a sermon really hit home? Well… that was how I felt that day.
She said:
Turn your mess, into your message.
- Joyce Meyer
So I did. My mess is now my message. Just in time for spring, I launched AllergicLifestyle.com a new site devoted completely to allergies, asthma, sensitivities and related issues. There I hope to share what has helped me, and share the mountain of research I have to do on a regular basis just to get products that I can use safely in day-to-day life. What works for me, may not work for someone else, but… if it works for someone as extremely sensitive as I am, then there is a fairly good chance that it’s likely a good place for someone else to start looking for something that will work for them. I spend countless hours on the phone with companies trying to find products for myself, my home, and my family that are completely latex-free. A feat that is far more challenging than you might ever guess. And I plan to share that information as well.
I am just getting it started, and probably won’t have time to kick things into high-gear over there until June. But I am excited about it now. I know how incredibly frustrating those issues are for me, and if I can maybe help someone else’s life be a little bit easier, or help give a voice to an allergic baby too young to speak, then I will have done a good thing and I will consider the blog a success.
