Live Your Life

Are you the type of person that allows things in life to happen; do you merely respond to those things? Or are you the type of person who lives life to the fullest and cause things to happen? I don't know about you, but I want to be in the last group. In my mind, to be in the first group makes me akin to a lemming. Lemmings may look adorable but .. need I say more?

When I first became ill, one illness led to the next, then to the next, then to the next. What I thought was going to be at most a week or two off work continued. It was a tidal wave of both acute and chronic illnesses. I couldn't get on top of it all. I allowed my doctors to dictate treatment. In other words, I acted like a lemming. Others were running my life. I wasn't in control. I was too overwhelmed to grab hold of what was happening to me. My health, my family, my finances, my faith, let's face it, my life
was totally changed back in Oct. 2006.


Things are different now. It has taken a long time to get to where 
I am at right now. I am still mourning some of what I have gone through. Perhaps the reason for this my health continues to deteriorate. However, it is my life. And as Thoreau said, "I want... to live deliberately, I want... to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to put to rout all that was not life and not when I... come to die discover that I had not lived.” Therefore, I've taken charge of my illnesses. I've found doctors that treat me as an equal and don't treat me as a disease or a number. I work with them to find the best treatments available and serve as my own advocate. 


When you are ill or someone you love is ill, you need to help yourself or to them help themselves. Know you/they still have the choice to live life or let an illness run it. Trust me, it feels better to take charge of life, look the illness square in the face and Carpe Diem!