Today I read a post by a friend: Scott Jordan Harris: keeping a diary keeps me sane. I would never proclaim to be sane, in fact I think sanity is quite over-rated! However what Scott discusses in this blog on the BBC Ouch! site rings true. When you are so severely ill, it’s easy to over-look even the smallest of accomplishments each day. I am guilty as charged.
I consider myself generally a positive person, despite the adversity of illness and disability that I find myself in, but I know that I don’t always recognise the positives in my life. Sure, the big things yes. Last year I completed my BA (hons) Humanities with German and Music with a lower second-class honours, and bagged myself a Diploma in German and a Diploma in Music into the bargain. It took me 6 years of home-study, but I got there. But it’s the small things that I tend to over-look – I think most of us do.
So today, because of Scott’s blog post, I am inspired to start a positive blog. It might not be written every day, I know that and am not going to kid myself otherwise. But just writing here will be an achievement in itself.
So far my achievements today have been:
- having a bath and washing my hair on my own for the first time since I became ill with flu a couple of weeks ago;
- having the clarity of mind enough to pay a bill;
- arranging a window cleaner for my 2, very dirty, flat windows;
- putting a small load of washing on;
- getting my post from the in-tray;
- putting half a dozen towels in their new home;
- setting this blog up and writing this post.
The achievement I’m most proud of is the first one. Why? It’s the most exhausting to do out of everything in that list due to the sheer physical effort involved.
I plan to rest for the rest of the afternoon and this evening – feet up, reclined in front of the TV watching something cheerful. Now I feel like I’ve earned that rest.
The Mysterious Life of... 