Happy Easter Folks!!This is a picture of my oldest nephew from a few years ago.
I love it so because it expresses pure unabandoned Joy and Happiness.
As a Christian, Easter is a time for rejoicing and celebration -- an affirmation of New Life.
May you find
Hope
and
Happiness
this
Easter Day.
Slipping Through My FingersI'm Addy; 29, a little crazy, a little kinky, and I suffer from bipolar type 1, depression and self harm. They are illnesses I suffer from and are not a reflection of my personality. I'm tired of the stigma surrounding mental health, it's time we gave it a damn good spanking. This is my journey with depression.
Yesterday, he shared a beautiful story....
"It's been a year since the earthquake destroyed me,"
It’s been nearly a year since I was sitting on a beach in Port Fairy burning myself with a flaming stick. A flame which ignited the breakdown and the destruction of everything I had been building for 28 and a 1/2 years.
When I think back on that night, the cool autumnal air breathing softly around me, I remember the tears which streaked my face as I held that stick with trembling hands. The dead mobile phone lying on the beach beside me, a name burned on the LCD panel in my mind. I wonder what would have happened if the battery had still been breathing? I wonder if the person I had wanted to call would have answered?
Would they have listened?
A year before I had been on the exact same beach. A whole 365 days since I’d roamed there, with the intent of dying there. It had been a different phone at the time, but as I sat with the knife held against my wrist it had sparked alive with an echoing ‘beep’ in the still night. A ‘beep’ which sparked alive a long forgotten piece of my soul; enough to drag myself from the beach and spend a fitful night shivering and weeping in a lumpy hostel bed.
In the 365 days which had passed I had managed to rebuild my life. I had fought myself back from hell and only a few weeks earlier had been standing on the metaphorical Butt of Lewis screaming “Ha!” into the wind…(yay for obscure literary references)…having battled myself from the brink of death into a position where I had the world at my feet. Everything was in place; depression had been beaten, self harm overcome, social anxiety had had it’s butt spanked (well, nearly, a few more slaps and it would have been in submission). I had just started working toward my dream of a diploma, a novel was a few edits away from being completed and another started, I had friends for the first time in six years. Aside from glandular fever, which was hardly my fault, I was ecstatic about how much I’d been able to achieve, how much success I had reached.
Then came the double whammy I’ve mentioned before: leukemia diagnosis and being dumped, in the same week. Two shuddering tremors which rocked my foundations - two tremors which caused the earthquake that collapsed all the work. The act of nature which sent 365 days of work crumbling to dust and drove me back to that beach, back to where I had nearly killed myself.
Please do go read the rest. You will be glad you did.
For Quilters with MS this week wasn't about raising funds but raising awareness. I've never done anything like this before and without my quilter friends I never could have. I enjoyed reading how each experiences MS. And all the fellow bloggers/visitors from all over the world - literally - Ya'll made it happen!!!Some great MS stories were shared such as this one from Yankee Quilter of Scraps and Threadtales.
You made it come to life with your fun, participatory attitude. Wow! The questions and interest about MS - it was amazing. We even cleared up some confusion about MS with factoids. We wanted to raise awareness and we did. Plus there was fun with the yummy quilts "On Display."
It was all good. It was more than we planned, too! When embarking upon this first-time-ever adventure I decided "Why Not?" and set up a donation page. Lets put ourselves in the position to donate to the MS Society just in case. Turns out we received donations to the MS Society on behalf of Quilters with MS. That was a huge surprise. Thank you for carrying us over the moon with your kindness.
Back in the states several of my coworkers at the college had only recently immigrated to the United and States and they had widely differing commands of the English language and American Culture. Since I had lived overseas for many years I empathized with them and often found myself explaining some of the strangest things.And an absolutely fabulous visual metaphor was presented by Diane of Persnickety Quilts.
One hot summer afternoon I was met one of these new arrivals on my way to the parking lot about 4 blocks away. He was in the process of buying a car and wanted to know the difference between lease and buy and why did some of the dealers want to make you take out a loan if you only want to pay cash? OK, so this conversation took a lot longer than the walk. After about 30 minutes of standing in the sun I realized my leg was getting heavy. I started to walk to my car and instead lurched forward. My coworker grabbed my arm and helped me to the car. He was very worried about my driving. "I'll be fine," I told him. "I have MS. Once I'm in the air conditioning I'll be fine." He dropped my arm (really quickly) and without saying anything walked to car and left. To be honest at the time I didn't really make note of this...I just wanted to sit in the A/C!
The next morning his wife, who also worked with me, came to my office. She brought me a little bag with some loose teas in it. "In my country," she said quietly " women drink this when they don't feel well." I thanked her for it and put on the tea kettle. She still looked a bit concerned. "American women are so different." she said, " we would never talk to another woman's husband about her woman problems."
I was a bit taken back. "It is a bit more thank a women problem." I said. "I almost fainted in parking lot," I said a bit indignant. "In our country," she replied sitting up a bit straighter, "we handle our monthlies better."
Oh no! I said I have MS...not PMS!!! I forget sometimes there are parts of the world that there is no or almost no cases of MS. Since this couple was from the Middle East they had never even heard of it! I brought up a website and showed her. "Men," she said as we finished our tea," they can be very stupid in any country. He should have helped you!" I have a feeling he was in big trouble in any language!
Do you remember that anti-drug advertisement with the fried egg? You know the one: "This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs."
This little quilt makes me think of my brain ~ my brain with MS!
Let’s say those dizzying squares of psychedelic fabric are nerve cells in my brain or spinal cord. Some of them have been damaged by my body’s own immune system. The resulting scars or lesions impede the messages from my brain to other parts of my body. Sometimes these messages (indicated by black sashing strips) get garbled; sometimes they don’t get through at all. In other words, my brain might want to quilt, or walk, or eat soup with a spoon, but if the message can’t reach the appropriate muscles in my body, it ain’t gonna happen!
See those wonky quilt blocks? They represent symptoms I deal with every day: numbness and tingling, poor balance, weakness in the limbs, muscle spasms, fatigue, sensitivity to heat, loss of bladder or bowel control (too much information? Sorry.) Just as each of these quilt blocks varies a bit from the others, my symptoms may vary from day to day. Not only are they unpredictable, they might be totally different from those of someone else with MS.
Let’s see, how can I tie in that big uneven purple border? I know--those strips symbolize my support team: my family, friends, and medical staff. Their vigilant assistance with my personal care and daily needs as well as their unfailing love frame my life.Boy, I never thought I’d be using one of my quilts as a medical metaphor. I’m just glad it wasn’t Human Reproduction Awareness Week!
So do go visit these ladies while I go introduce myself.
I love it - our world is expanding.
Today's nifty tool comes from Spring Mill Home Products of Gladwyne, PA.
JarPop! "World's Easiest Jar Opener "If you have any tips on helpful, or not so helpful, items out there, please send me your recommendations via email.
