Brave Heart, Brave Soul. She who is brave is free.

  "When you have a rare disease you face two battles. One being the illness itself. And the other, living in a world where so few people understand what you're up against." ~ Unknown.  Let's talk about perception, reality and chronic illness.   Can we just be honest? Let all the pretense go? Chronic illness is one of those things that most people don’t ”get” till they “get it”. And let’s be brutally blunt now. What so folks think they know isn't always what's actually going on. You know what's happening to your body. I mean it's happening whether you like it or not, right? Yeah, you know. And your doctor knows but  there's a particular kind of person whose perception doesn't quite match our reality. Whatever your real life is doesn't hold water in their eyes. You're making it up. Being dramatic. You just need attention. And sadly, that becomes the narrative.  I don't know why so many folks these days feel they’re adept at diagnosing...

"Everything has changed and yet, I am more me than I've ever been." ~ Iain Thomas If my life were a book it would start something like this...There once was a little girl. She was kind, and good. She loved Jesus and her Mama. She was her daddy's little girl and had his grit to boot too. This little girl loved to sing and dance, to laugh, to play and to jump on beds. She was a bit of an oddball, wearing tiaras and capes, always full of spirit and adventures running wild through her own imagination. She loved silly thingys, nonesensey dodads, fantasy thingamajigs and make-believe whatchamacalits. She liked to read, write and create. And she loved to quote the great Dr. Seuss in such ways as this,"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, which is what I do, and that enables  you to laugh at life's realities." Birthdays, partie...

I was born 39 years and 5 days ago. I was not born to celebrities, nor was I born of royalty but I was born into a very loving, stable and amazing home. My parents did not have a lot, they did not own the best of the best, with grand TV's on beautiful stands nor did they serve up food with names I could not pronounce but they gave me everything they had and then some. My dad worked hard serving his country, my mom stayed home with me, sacrificing many luxuries in life to do so. Our home was a place of refuge, warmth and joy. Mom made the best of what we had and never complained. She created a beautiful home for me to grow up in, many times made up of third hand items and never thought to complain. When folks walked into our home, they automatically felt at home and the truth is our home was always open. What we had, we shared with everyone. No meal was shared between just the 3 of us, no; every meal was made and shared with extended family. When the bills piled up and...