Welcome to September and our monthly A Chronic Voice blog link-up. Read on for my take on the September prompts.
GAZING
I must admit that I am not a summer person. Autumn/Winter is my season, and I am happy to leave summer behind and look forward to cooler weather and a happier mood. I love gazing at the garden as the leaves turn, watching them pile up on the lawn, and I love a crisp, fresh morning walk with my dog.
SHAMING
Humans are such delicate creatures. All it takes is one cruel word from a stranger to upset us and ruin our day. I try hard to move on from these situations, but I am ashamed to say that despite my years of mindfulness training, I haven’t yet grown a thick enough skin to avoid the sting from negative remarks and unpleasant people. I am learning lessons from these interactions and am determined to remain strong in the face of such challenges.
DEFEATING
It has been over a month since I started using my blood serum eyedrops from NHS Blood and Transplant. My doctor seemed confident that they would vastly improve my chronic pain, and at first, I was pleased to find that they seemed to be working. Then I tried to wear make-up. It hurt, my eyes felt heavy, sore, and uncomfortable, and I had to admit defeat and wash it off. I am still struggling with chronic pain, but it has improved with the new eyedrops. I will not be defeated!
CONCENTRATING
My marriage continues to be a struggle and I have trouble concentrating on my work responsibilities and my other daily activities as a result. Having been with my husband for twenty-one years (married for eleven), I cannot simply divorce him and walk away. We have children together, we have a joint mortgage, and we have built a life. Now we must navigate his mental illness and decide whether we can stay together or not.
EMPOWERING
Knowledge is power. It is empowering to know that my instincts could be right when it comes to my husband and the reasons why he behaves the way that he does. Mental illness is a beast that cannot be defeated, but we can try and fight it. There have been developments in my personal life that give me hope, but I am also wary and conscious that I have to be protective of myself. Let us see what happens during the next month or so.
Chronic Voice Link-Up
I joined the social network for A Chronic Voice because I needed to find people who understand what life is like with chronic illness, people like me. Today I have written a post using the August link-up prompts, to show my experience of living with a chronic pain disorder. Click here to find other blog posts from fellow chronic pain sufferers, or #spoonies as we call ourselves online.
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SpookyMrsGreen 
Glad to hear the new eyedrops are helping a bit.
Lovely seaside photo!
Thank you!
Hi! I stopped by last night on my cell phone to leave a comment for you for your September write-up, but I keep getting a WordPress login request and the comment doesn’t post. This leaves me with my desktop today and I hope my comment goes through!
I liked how direct you were with your prompts this month. I’m a fall person myself, but we don’t really get fall here in Taiwan. We go straight from summer into winter. 🙂
I’m very glad to hear that you have got some improvement with your eyedrops and can sympathize at not being able to wear some make-up. I hope that changes for you.
Finally, I also wanted to add that I am also quite sensitive to cruel and insensitive remarks from strangers and it can affect me deeply. I try to let them go, but it’s so hard, isn’t it?
Take good care!
Hi Carrie, your comment got through! Thanks for stopping by. Yes, it is sad that we have to toughen up in order to deal with people, but I suppose that’s what you call character building.