To my fellow spoonies

(If you are new to the spoon concept, read the Spoon Theory by Christine Miserandino)

This will be a short post, but I think it’s worth sharing at this point. Reflecting on the past few weeks since I’ve started this blog and my foray into social media, I wanted to say that I think we are an awesome community! I’ve read lots of twitter posts, blogs and am amazed and proud of us and what we are capable of despite having a (or multiple) chronic illness(es).

Encouraging words, story-sharing, tips, frustrations, and expressions of a wide range of emotions fill the comment boxes, twitter and instagram feeds. I’ve been participating in twitter chats and have “met” other like-minded e-patients, advocates and the like.

We deal with a lot and we probably don’t give ourselves enough credit when things aren’t going well. Here are the top 5 things that I think make us fantastic:

1. We can handle pain like no one else (“regular people” level 10 pain might be a “5” to us).
2. We have lots of seemingly random knowledge about things: medicine, supplements and resources.
3. We have more understanding of and empathy for others with illness/disabilities.
4. We are probably better equipped to handle stress than most. (So…you missed your train…meh! No big deal).
5. We go through all of this, but still manage to support each other and find some humour or silver lining.

So to my fellow spoonies and lupus warriors,  a round of (gentle) applause, (gentle) hugs and (gentle) high-fives.

This song always gets me moving and feeling strong (the makeup is pretty fierce too):

“Shootin’ at the walls of heartache, bang, bang, I am the warrior! 
Yes I am the warrior and victory is mine!
The warrior…the warrior!”

–The Warrior, Patty Smyth