Red lights....or green? Diabetes365 day 30
I was diagnosed with diabetes 35 year ago, at the end of a summer spent on the west coast of Ireland. It's hard to describe just how magical that summer was. I had taken lessons scuba diving and a large group of friends spent almost every day in the water.
In the afternoons we'd head back to my house and devour a
huge chocolate pound cake that my Mum made. (We took to calling these tombstones because of their size and shape.)
Back home in Dublin after a week of getting sicker, I was sent to hospital and given the official diagnosis of diabetes. I can't really describe how this felt.
I think it's as if I was sailing along on beautiful country roads with blue skies and no delays. Then I turned a corner and I was on a highway, in a rainstorm, with horrible traffic and nothing but red tail lights stretching ahead of me.
Anyone watching wouldn't have seen changes in me, but inside I always expected the inevitable onset of diabetes complications. I sort of expected the worst.
It was almost 20 years before those tail lights went away. Thanks to a wonderful and patient endocrinologist at the
Joslin Clinic, a lot of those clouds were lifted.
Now most days are easier. And I've mentioned elsewhere all I've been able to do despite (or because of) diabetes.
It's still a lousy disease, that requires constant work every day of my life. But I've learned about
acceptance and
endurance and blessings from God.
There is no cure for diabetes.
Yet.
Learn more about what living with diabetes is really like at the
diabetes365 project.
Labels: acceptance, blessings, diabetes365, endurance, nablopomo
Accepting my friend
You know how it is with friends. Sometimes I meet someone by accident and feel like I've known them all of your life. There's a comfort there. I can spend all day with a good friend and still want for more.
Then there are more challenging friendships. I meet them and it's not an immediate connection. Whenever I'm with them I come away wondering how I feel about it. Was it uncomfortable? Well...maybe. Do I want to see them again? Yes and no. If anyone looked at me beside them they'd comment on how awkward it looked. "Why are you spending time with that guy, are you crazy?"
But with time it can grow into deep friendship and occasionally even love. Or sometimes I just
learn to be with them. I start to understand where they're coming from and they mold me and change me whether I want them to or not. I get used to their walk, or the weird things they like to eat. Now when my family sees us together they say "Oh there go the two of them, again".
And much later in life I can look back and appreciate the value of acceptance.
My friend isn't perfect but they've helped me to see my own faults and weaknesses. Like it or not, their influence has been really helpful in lots of ways. Big and small.
I met this friend of mine a little over 35 years ago. Back them I was just a teenager with all the challenges that brings. And if you'd asked me then about it, I'd have told you how much I hated it. My diabetes.
Not a day goes by when I don't think about a cure. And what it would mean for me to say goodbye to diabetes.
You'll think me crazy, but I might even miss it a bit. Not always, maybe just when I see myself slipping from some of the good habits that diabetes has taught me. Like acceptance.
My child, you must follow and treasure my teachings and my instructions.
Keep in tune with wisdom and think what it means to have common sense.
Beg as loud as you can for good common sense.
Search for wisdom as you would search for silver or hidden treasure.
Then you will understand what it means to respect and to know the LORD God.
Proverbs 2:1-5.
Labels: acceptance, friendship, nablopomo
