I am so excited to be participating in the Health Activist Writer's Months Challenge by WEGO. It started April 1st, so I am a bit late to the game. The challenge is to blog all 30 days of April and each day WEGO has a different topic or prompt. We (participants) are asked to be customize each prompt as well as be as creative as possible. So without further ado.......
10 Things I Couldn't Live Without
This is tricky. At first I start to think about my daily routine and what I value most within that routine, like my morning cup of coffee. My mind also wandered to the list of things I use when I am stressed or when I am making a trip to the hospital. After much thought and deliberation I think I landed somwehere between the necessities and wants of life.
1) God. While I am just beginning this walk and developing a more intimate relationship with Him, it has been Him all along who has kept me alive. He is the beginning and the end and all the in-betweens. He fills all the gaps.
2) My family, friends and wonderful support group. It is because of these wonderful folks that I am able to laugh, thrive and feel as though I am more than CF.
3) Animal companion. I have for the most part of my life spent it with a dog. They each have given me a sense of independence and companionship that is difficult to explain. When the emotions are too difficult to verbalize my dogs have been their to catch tears without judgement or needing an explanation. They have also been a driving factor in my over-all well being by forcing me, at times to literally get out of bed, because they need tending to. With a disease that affects the lungs, being stagnant for long periods is not good, the lungs need to be worked to get all the junk out. I have found peace in walking and now running with my animal companions.
4) A good book. There really is nothing like a good book. Escaping reality through the throws of a complex character is so thrilling. A good book can entice me to spend the day wrapped in a blanket with my animals while I throw myself into the characters world leaving my world behind for just a little while. Plus what else would I do with the major of my time when doing treatments?
5) Cup of coffee. Yep, there she is. It's not about the caffeine. Okay, maybe a smidgen. In all honesty, I just love the comfort of a steamy cup of coffee in my hands and to sip as I go about my morning to-do's.
6) Pasta. I LOVE me a good plate of pasta. Pretty much any kind of cheesy-noodle-with-sauce concoction will please me for days to come. Especially if there's leftovers.
7) My meds. While this relationship is one of equal amounts of love & hate, I really could not live without them. I have a motto; doing all my meds is not submission to CF but freedom from it. They are living saving but life consuming. They are givers of quality of life while taking precious hours away. Love/Hate.
8) A comfortable dress. Having a g-tube has fostered this dependency. Jeans that fit can hurt the g-tube area because of how much they hug the stomach area and I refuse, REFUSE to wear those pants that allow my nether regions to boil over. But a nice fitting dress allows freedom from the pinching, squishing, and smashing of the g-tube area. I know woman have fought for generations for our right to wear pants as equals to men but ladies a good dress is amazing.
9) Sports bra or a bralette. Again, this is because of medical devices. When I had my port-a-cath, these sweet little inventions allowed me to retain my modesty whiles doctors and nurses from around the world probed and prodded the darn thing. They also serve a purpose besides holding lady parts they also can hold tubing from getting all mangled up and pulling on the IV. You see, one simply wraps the tubing into the straps over even nicely tucked into the bra with the nice little lady parts.
10) Generosity. Without the generosity of others I would not be able write about the first 9 items on this list. It was the generosity of my family and friends who brought me to Christ, gave me a dog, purchased a good book, made me coffee and pasta, haveslaved for years to develop medications that prolong life, that gave me a dress for my birthday and suggested sports bra to keep my modesty.
And, there you have it ladies and gents. My couldn't-live-without list. Ask me to write about this again in 30 years and I am sure it will have changed. But for now, today, in this place in time this is what I long for and need most.
~Doodlin'
10 Things I Couldn't Live Without
This is tricky. At first I start to think about my daily routine and what I value most within that routine, like my morning cup of coffee. My mind also wandered to the list of things I use when I am stressed or when I am making a trip to the hospital. After much thought and deliberation I think I landed somwehere between the necessities and wants of life.
1) God. While I am just beginning this walk and developing a more intimate relationship with Him, it has been Him all along who has kept me alive. He is the beginning and the end and all the in-betweens. He fills all the gaps.
2) My family, friends and wonderful support group. It is because of these wonderful folks that I am able to laugh, thrive and feel as though I am more than CF.
3) Animal companion. I have for the most part of my life spent it with a dog. They each have given me a sense of independence and companionship that is difficult to explain. When the emotions are too difficult to verbalize my dogs have been their to catch tears without judgement or needing an explanation. They have also been a driving factor in my over-all well being by forcing me, at times to literally get out of bed, because they need tending to. With a disease that affects the lungs, being stagnant for long periods is not good, the lungs need to be worked to get all the junk out. I have found peace in walking and now running with my animal companions.
4) A good book. There really is nothing like a good book. Escaping reality through the throws of a complex character is so thrilling. A good book can entice me to spend the day wrapped in a blanket with my animals while I throw myself into the characters world leaving my world behind for just a little while. Plus what else would I do with the major of my time when doing treatments?
5) Cup of coffee. Yep, there she is. It's not about the caffeine. Okay, maybe a smidgen. In all honesty, I just love the comfort of a steamy cup of coffee in my hands and to sip as I go about my morning to-do's.
6) Pasta. I LOVE me a good plate of pasta. Pretty much any kind of cheesy-noodle-with-sauce concoction will please me for days to come. Especially if there's leftovers.
7) My meds. While this relationship is one of equal amounts of love & hate, I really could not live without them. I have a motto; doing all my meds is not submission to CF but freedom from it. They are living saving but life consuming. They are givers of quality of life while taking precious hours away. Love/Hate.
8) A comfortable dress. Having a g-tube has fostered this dependency. Jeans that fit can hurt the g-tube area because of how much they hug the stomach area and I refuse, REFUSE to wear those pants that allow my nether regions to boil over. But a nice fitting dress allows freedom from the pinching, squishing, and smashing of the g-tube area. I know woman have fought for generations for our right to wear pants as equals to men but ladies a good dress is amazing.
9) Sports bra or a bralette. Again, this is because of medical devices. When I had my port-a-cath, these sweet little inventions allowed me to retain my modesty whiles doctors and nurses from around the world probed and prodded the darn thing. They also serve a purpose besides holding lady parts they also can hold tubing from getting all mangled up and pulling on the IV. You see, one simply wraps the tubing into the straps over even nicely tucked into the bra with the nice little lady parts.
10) Generosity. Without the generosity of others I would not be able write about the first 9 items on this list. It was the generosity of my family and friends who brought me to Christ, gave me a dog, purchased a good book, made me coffee and pasta, haveslaved for years to develop medications that prolong life, that gave me a dress for my birthday and suggested sports bra to keep my modesty.
And, there you have it ladies and gents. My couldn't-live-without list. Ask me to write about this again in 30 years and I am sure it will have changed. But for now, today, in this place in time this is what I long for and need most.
~Doodlin'
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