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What do you still find joy in???

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Posted 6/18/2009 1:11 PM (GMT 0)
This is for Popsie.  What do you love.  What do you find joy in.  Is there something you have gained from MS that has added to your life?  Is there an ability or skill that you have retained that you cherish?  Tell us where you get joy.
Posted 6/19/2009 1:07 AM (GMT 0)
I cherish my loving family & special friends & my caring internet friends.

I rejoice in the sunshine, birdsong, brightly coloured flowers, parrots and butterflys that dance in my garden.

MS has been a journey & like all journeys has taught me so much that I would not have learnt otherwise. Last year I had such pain/spasticity that I wanted to die. Now I know that there are so many out there who are so much worse off.

Now I no longer wait to get better but do as much as I can. I volunteer, last week I plucked up courage to speak to 400 people, I live in & appreciate the moment.

I love helping anyone in any way I can.
turn
Posted 6/19/2009 2:48 AM (GMT 0)
Awesome Popsie!!

I am blessed with wonderful friends and family, especially my two wonderful, perfect, brilliant, caring sons (I am not biased! ;).  I get great joy in reading.  I especially love reading now that I have a way to read (large font on Kindle II)  I love to draw and feel so blessed that I have not yet lost my fine motor skills.  I enjoy going to art museums and learning about art periods.  I am sorta obsessed with impressionism and post impressionism. 

I love being outside.  I love to camp and fly fish.  I love to sleep on the ground ( I have a fine sleeping mat!) without a tent so that I can lay there and listen to the night sounds and look at the stars!!!

 I can live with an incurable disease and still find joy.  I have learned to love my body and all it can do for me even with this disease. 

Posted 6/20/2009 1:02 AM (GMT 0)
Gretchen, I am impressed.

How do you manage to find time to draw? For 20 years I have promised myself that I will start drawing & painting again but still have not go there.

Bet your boys love the camping too.
Posted 6/20/2009 1:27 AM (GMT 0)
Popsie,

I keep a smallish sketch pad with me at all times.  In that I keep a pencil and a lot of magazine photos that I might want to draw.  When waiting for a doctors appointment, or waiting to pic up a kid from school, or before I drift off to sleep, I will sketch a bit.  I only do real drawing (suitable for framing, giving away, etc) during the summer when I am on vacation.

Posted 6/22/2009 3:59 PM (GMT 0)

MS is directly responsible for two unexpected blessings: 

1) During the four years I was waiting for a diagnosis, I learned how to rely on God for strength.  I now have a very strong faith to draw on for the rest of my life.

2) When I first began having symptoms I was in nursing school.  I pursued nursing because it was a safe, flexible career, but my physical limitations have forced me to choose a different career path.  I am now very excited to be pursuing a writing career, which something I always wanted to do, but was never brave enough.

I am deeply thankful for:

          A husband who sticks by me in sickness and in health...

                    Four loving, active children...

                              Really good medical insurance.  :)

Posted 6/30/2009 3:25 AM (GMT 0)
I am excited by the positive improvements I am getting from Low dose naltrexone & the possibility it will stop the progression of my MS.
Posted 7/2/2009 3:57 AM (GMT 0)
Doofdonkey,

Your story is an absolute inspiration!!! It gives me joy just to know you and all you have achieved.

I too, am trying to rebuild using energy and light and am seeing some exciting progress. It seems that I had to lose nearly everything in order to appreciate how much I do have.

I really think doofdonkey is a misnomer. I see you as unicorn or a centuaur maybe, reaching for the stars & galloping along the milky way.
turn
Posted 7/3/2009 1:00 PM (GMT 0)
Donkey,
I am concerned about you. I might be misinterpreting what you are saying (after all I am just a poor dumb redneck, and you sure are using high flauten words), but hope you do not really think that your illness is a punishment, but rather as an oppertunity to grow as human being. I think you have realized that your worth as a human being is not measured by job or career (which is what society tells us, and I am not saying quit jobs and practice free love all the time), but rather by our ability to love and care for and about one another (because there are more important things in life then a job or a career). I am concerned because I see alot of feelings of loss and I wonder if you have support in getting thru that loss. Granted we are a peer support forum, but we do not do therapy. I hope you are not offended by the suggestion of therapy, but I just want to get you some real help in dealing with the loss of health (which is the same level of loss like the death of a dear loved one) that I think you expressed with the medaphor of a sarcophagus. Those of us who have been so very ill understand those feelings of loss, and just want to help you get better.
Navy
Posted 7/4/2009 1:40 AM (GMT 0)
Hey Doofus my legendary friend,

A mythical alter ego is great fun, I recommend it.

I see myself as a phoenix, a fiery mythical bird with a colourful plumage, who is reborn (from the ashes of its previous life) to live again.

For those days when I need a gentler, more peaceful alter ego I dance through my garden as a butterfly feasting on the nectar of fragrant flowers and spreading my wings in the sunshine.
Posted 7/4/2009 9:59 AM (GMT 0)
Well, I was only officially diagnosed on Wednesday, so I guess I can find joy in the fact that my RRMS is mild, and I can take joy in knowing that, at least for the immediate future, I'll be able to cherish and participate in my daughter's preschool days. It would absolutely devastate me to miss out on the simple joys, such as seeing her wave good bye to trees as she leaves her daycare center when I pick her up, or her saying hello to the moon when I lift her to her bedroom window every night before bath time.
Posted 7/4/2009 3:07 PM (GMT 0)
Oh Mum!

Those are wonderful things to find joy in!!  Thank you!!  It can be the simple things in life that give us the most joy!  It is for me anway.

Posted 7/4/2009 5:53 PM (GMT 0)
Mum

I am hardly ever here now that I am working, but I read very often. I have to say I agree with Gretchen on ur post! WOW! God bless u friend...keep enjoying the gifts that seems small, but as u've seen, are huge!
Posted 7/5/2009 3:14 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks Gretchen and Rhonda, I thought it sounded kind of corny, but it took us a few years to get pregnant - I have her at 36, and it was worth the wait. We wont be having any more children, so I want to enjoy and participate in her childhood as much as I can.

Since I've been unwell, Mac has been in daycare 5 days a week. I'm hoping once my treatment starts and I start to feel better, that I can have her home with me 2 days a week.
Posted 1/5/2010 2:53 PM (GMT 0)
I enjoy watching my nieces and nephews grow up. At first, that's what kept me wanting to live. Now that it has been 15 years with constant progression of MS, I enjoy being a disability activist. There is so much to be done. So much I would not have known about without MS.
I also enjoy singing with my church choir. I would not have found this church and all the friends I have made there, including my current husband, if I had not gotten MS.
Posted 1/12/2010 9:12 PM (GMT 0)
Absolutely everything....

Gary

Posted 1/13/2010 7:16 PM (GMT 0)
Ditto Gary plus everything to come:)

I don't bring pity to the party anymore. Each day is a gift, I have learned....and I never want to stop learning.

I cant do SOME of the things as I used to , but i can do all of the things I need to and that is a blessing.

~Kate
Posted 1/14/2010 5:57 PM (GMT 0)
Well put Katie.....

Gary

Posted 1/22/2010 11:44 PM (GMT 0)
Gary and Katie, i third your sentiments. MS has given me a new appreciation for all of life's treasures big and small.

I just joined this group, but I've had MS for 13 years. Today I feel great, but 10 years ago I had an attack that took me a year and a half to fully recover and regain my mobility and ability to walk again. I do walk now, I even do yoga and kickboxing! I made a vlog for this website where people are sharing inspiring stories of surviving with MS. I thought I would share with others! They're looking for more people to participate if any of you wonderfully positive people are interested in helping others!

my vlog http://bit.ly/6veMQT and the site with the stories http://bit.ly/6veMQT
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