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In: Cavies
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My guinea pigs get treats regularly, which they love.  When they hear the rustle of a bag, they wheek, in hopes that the bag might contain something special for them. Today, I was passing out molasses, raisin, and oatmeal horse treats.  They come as three circles together as a triangle and I usually break them apart so each pig gets one section. Sometimes when I pass out the treats, sometimes one pig is concentrating so hard on his neighbor getting a treat that he misses when I drop a treat into his cage. Because he is worried about what his neighbor has, he misses outRead More →

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In: Cats, Chronic Illness, Dogs, Pets
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After a friend, Kylee, was hospitalized after a particularly scary series of dystonic attacks and still chose to post 10 positives for the day, I decided to follow suite and post a list of my own positives.  I also found this very appropriate quote which reminds me of the old hymn “Count Your Blessings.” Download the full song from iTunes 1. The weather has been beautiful!  I’m loving the thunderstorms that bring the rain the crops, garden, and flowers need as well as the warm spring days. 2. The flowers are blooming like crazy, and I’m actually able to enjoy them as my meds have managed toRead More →

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In: Chronic Illness, Mental Health
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I’ve not been around much, and I suppose there are excuses for it, but I’m not going to go into them in depth here (maybe later). This post is to talk about this crazy holiday we are celebrating. Recently, I’ve become rather anti-Christmas. The last few years, it was mostly just the commercialism of Christmas – trees, presents, decorations, that sort of thing. This year, whether it is because of my depression or because of my pain or because of my relationship with God, I have become anti-Christmas to the point that most manger scenes annoy me. When people talk about the real reason forRead More →

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In: Chronic Illness, Chronic Pain, Mental Health
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“He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…in this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” 1 Peter 1:3 and 6 In our growth group, we are reading through 1 Peter and that stood out to me. We all have trials and grief, but even through all of our suffering, we can still hold hope because He has given us HOPE. It is that hope that gets us through the long days (and nights) and through the long trials. WeRead More →

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In: Chronic Illness, Chronic Pain, Mental Health
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One thing that I’ve been questioning recently is how God could have allowed all this pain to happen to me when so many people were praying for my surgery to go well and cure the pain.  A few days ago, God revealed a comforting analogy to me through nature that helped me understand a little bit of why. Some days, the sun is hidden by many clouds.  Sometimes the rain pounds the earth, while thunder shakes the earth and lightning streaks across the sky.  This is not what we expected, not what we wanted, yet God remains in control.  The rain that drenches the groundRead More →

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In: Chronic Illness, Chronic Pain
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In reflection over my last post, I’ve realized that I failed to mention another huge part of the realization my lack of participation in worship made me realize. God is worthy and I cannot give Him what He deserves. It doesn’t matter if you have one working arm or a hundred, as humans we simply cannot give Him what He deserves. It isn’t something I am lacking solely because I cannot worship with the accompaniment of bass sounding music, but something we as a human race, as all creation, lacks. Sure we can sing Him pretty songs, help others, or even lead others to Him,Read More →

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In: Chronic Illness, Chronic Pain
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During worship this morning, I stood gritting my teeth and holding back tears, desperately clutching my arm to my body in an attempt to protect it from the low bass sound waves ricocheted around my body. For some reason, my arm responds to low sound waves the same way your arm might if it was placed in a pair of vice grips, then tightened. As painful as it was, it wasn’t the pain that finally caused the tears to roll down my face. “How can I say thanks For the things You have done for me, Things so undeserved, Yet You gave to prove YourRead More →

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In: Chronic Illness, Chronic Pain
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The purpose of this blog isn’t for me to complain, but to comment on my life with a chronic pain syndrome, which of course includes pain. Even though pain is a part of my everyday life, it isn’t always the thing that most affects my life. Sometimes the emotional struggles are just as difficult as the physical ones. I realized the other day that I had not used my left arm normally in more than six months. I have not folded my own clothes, zipped a Ziploc bag, or clapped my hands in half of a year. I remember being insisting that people know myRead More →