Lumigrate and Lent; Inspiration from People Dealing with Pain

Every day I wake up like anyone maybe does, thinking about what I have in front of that day.  Today is an important spiritual day for many in the world, as "The Season of Lent" began, as I was grateful to see it referred to by Alice in a new post today in the Forums / Spirituality.  Alice lives where Mardi Gras originated in the USA and she wrote the most wonderful piece about it.  Alice and I go way back probably about six months when we'd connected on facebook and she had started utilizing Lumigrate and our videos, which got us 'chatting' on facebook one day. 

I'll never forget bouncing back and forth from the laptop to the mirror putting on my makeup and doing my hair while getting ready to go to a fund raising event in Grand Junction on that wonderful summer evening.   Chatting with some nervousness with a woman in the South who was Christian about what Lumigrate is about related to spirituality as part of health care, and I shared a bit of my own thoughts and beliefs with Alice.  I shared with her that through the years I've been married and divorced, single and dating, and living in many different cities, including Colorado Springs which is filled with Christians because the city sought out the 'clean industry' of Christian businesses.  When I moved to Grand Junction six years ago I was accompanied by a Christian who had been my 'insignificant other' I joked, since we didn't live together.  I learned much from Rick, who has since passed through town to have his R.V. serviced and gave me his feedback about Lumigrate, which was that 'the VA needs this, Mardy'.  I had confidence in speaking with Alice through a computer because of having spent the years graced by Rick's presence in my life.

She apparently accepted what I said, because here we are, all these months later having gone through a lot together.  I nervously waited through her time of surgery this winter and was so very happy to see her re-emerge and then hear that she's having success from the surgery. And I look forward to ever new development that transpires as she changes what she eats (as she says in her Lent contribution today), or learns other concepts at Lumigrate such as supplements, bioidentical hormones, and 'integrative medicine'.  So you'll find a link to her contribution below.  I want to thank her today for this and tell her what a blessing she has been to the pages of Lumigrate and facebook, and thus to the cause of people healing, in particular with fibromyalgia.  She also has contributed many recipes in the Nutrition section, by the way.  She's something! And it is so gratifying to think Lumigrate, and therefore I, had something to do with something good for her.  She deserves it!  As we all do. 

And in what she writes, I hear her saying 'I've learned from the past' and 'I will do' -- in order to have something better in the future.  She's an action taker!  And inspires me, to be honest.  And isn't THAT a wonderful thing when someone who wrote on Lumigrate before it was even 'live' on the Internet gets to receive such a beautiful, inspiring gift as what I read this morning. 

Two days ago I had another interesting facebook connection; I had a chance to talk with my former husband, who I had been ever-so-surprised to see on facebook and alive, as he had complex medical issues from hydrocephalus.  I realized in the gift of conversation I received that while he realized his illness' stressors contributed to my having health problems, that I had learned a great deal from him as well as my father in how to persevere when having a chronic pain condition.  He was funny still, and the effects of the surgeries (71 now), pharmaceuticals that keep his seizure disorder as managed as possible, and pain medications (a minimal amount I was surprised to hear) have rendered his memory very glitchy, but I hope that he will be able to connect the dots better if he chooses to follow along with Lumigrate.  I'd certainly welcome him and his wife of ten years now (congratulations!) and any other of their family members' writing so that we can learn from them, as they've been along for one of the most dramatic rides about modern health care and chronic pain I'm aware of.  And beyond that, I respect any desires they have for privacy at this time.  But the people who knew him back in the 1980s and 1990s have been pleased to hear he's happy and still enjoying computers!  He was a big part of the research I referred to in my blog about Bill Malm retiring in mid December, for anyone who is interested, and he taught me a great deal about being a professional and getting your work done despite having a surgery, infection, and a little seizure disorder, keeping a sense of humor about it, and getting your work done.  Lumigrate would not be here if it weren't for him because he literally allowed me to pull myself together in my 20s and become who I have professionally, and I want to publicly state that and hope that having something like Lumigrate to show for what happened when I went on to do what I have on my own now for the last 18 years makes some sense to him and we all realize that 'it's all good' because we're all happy where we are now. 

To bring this full circle about Lent, he and his daughter were a big help when my mother unexpectedly died at my family home.  She had become Catholic after I became and adult and she found out she had some big health problems, such as COPD from smoking, and organ damage from an inherited disease where the body holds onto iron in the organs.  She gave up her beloved gin for Lent and what ended up happening was her alcoholism escalated because she'd drink wine and after dinner drinks in order to meet the need she had for alcohol, establishing a different habit and then once Easter came she'd then add the martinis back in and was actually having MORE alcohol than before Lent.  I hope people realize I'm saying this with a sense of humor intact, which the limo driver commented to me after depositing us back to the house after many miles of driving for her funeral and burial (snowy mountains roads, sprawling distances), which was largely due to the husband in the front seat next to me (and I was next to the limo driver).  "I was dreading this today, but you guys have been great", he said.  So when you read what Alice writes about Lent, and my response once I get it in there, I really hope everyone who is going to look to this time, and the spring season, as a time to learn from the elders who are good examples for us.  (Yenta in the Spirituality Forum also had a new wonderful piece yesterday as well, I might add.)

Link to Alice's graceful writeup about Lent and fibromyalgia - www.lumigrate.com/forum/lent

(and maybe if enough people encourage her and she wants, she'll have a Forum someday too!)

Link to Yenta's Forum: www.lumigrate.com/forums/integrative-medicine-parts-make-whole/spirituality/it-cant-hurt-yenta-have-own-forum

Link to the blog post about Bill Malm and the air quality project my the gentle man I referred to above was employed by, which he didn't remember the named or that we worked together, met there, etc.... Because, every paper that came out of that project had a boilerplate paragraph at the beginning about what the visitor to five national parks had said about wanting cleanliness of the parks and of the air, which allowed for our good funding and all that came from it was carried out by this man who I hope will know he's done his part for the good of the world in this life.  As Alice wrote, 'may God bless everyone'.  Peace!

www.lumigrate.com/blog/whats-my-old-boss-wild-bill-malm-retiring-have-do-your-health-air-quality

(I got an email update from Bill and wife, Julie, by the way -- they're scrambling and not big on time to write about their journey, but they were doing okay -- good adventures and a health scare that almost brought them home, but it turned around.  When they get back I DO hope in his part-time work he will continue to do, that he'll guest write for us about air quality, as that is a big part of our wellness in our bodies.