You know how it is once you’ve committed to something – a new car, a name for your new baby, a pet peeve – that suddenly you see, hear or are surrounded by the exact same thing? It is everywhere, whereas before you never noticed it? Actually, that is what awareness is all about and what you’ve really done is thrown out some ‘key words’ for your consciousness to use as you search your daily experiences.
Awareness has been the opening theme for MLWT’s start-up blogs and it continues through this month celebrating several campaigns to build that ‘key word’ effect for public support. Today is International Fibromyalgia (FM) and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)/Myalgic Encephalopathy or myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) Days. The month of May is also now the National Lupus Awareness month, moved from October. I’m certain there are more going on and welcome your feedback on these other events or campaigns that honor illnesses frequently related to Lupus.
In an email commenting on our Mother’s Day blog entry (posted May 9th), Rosalind Joffe, aka cicoach.com, wrote:
“As a MOTHER who lives with chronic illness herself your post inspires many thoughts for me. But here’s just one: When you live with a chronic illness, just the act of “getting up and getting there”, can feel like a huge achievement. I think that we all need to celebrate what we do, everyday. Because if we don’t do it for ourselves, no one can do it for us.”
She reminds those of us who are free of pain right now how much easier it is to look towards our days once we have put the word “pain” into the back of our minds. Without that ‘key word’ making us acutely aware of how difficult doing even the most basic things can be, we lose insight into the struggles facing others we share these illnesses with.
As much as we don’t want to remember pain or illness when we’re feeling well, we encourage you to consider the hope you can give those who are in pain today by offering your participation in bringing FM, CFS/ME and Lupus to the forefront of public consciousness. Help build the public vocabulary by raising your own voices through activities such as bulletin boards, blogs, journals and everyday personal discussions to support efforts in strengthening awareness. We all feel pain or fatigue from time to time – if you are having a good day, offer that extra strength to someone who really needs it right now and let them know you hear them.
Here are just a few links to learn more about these campaigns and Rosalind. There are additional Lupus and FM links listed on our Links Page and remember to visit the Lounge ( public bulletin board) to post sites you recommend:
Working With Chronic Illness (Rosalind’s Blog)
