Re: Question for all

"what else can one do?"

For me, living with Rheumatoid Arthritis has been a lesson in humility. As with all of the challenges that I've overcome throughout my lifetime, I've chosen to view them as Life Lessons rather than curses. At one point, I was wishing that something would occur to end my misery, but I pulled out of that situation with a stronger understanding of my place in this world.

The often-crippling pain and discomfort that I've experienced with the roooomatizz has taught me to be grateful for those days that I CAN be productive. I have also learned to express even more empathy for those who are worse-off than I am. At one time, I believed that empathy was to be measured out according to the infirmity or devastation - I've since learned that my empathy must remain bottomless, limitless, and completely blind.

Yesterday, I was having a bit of a struggle in the studio with my symptoms, and in walked this wonderful artist. She is a reminder to me that things could be MUCH worse - she lost a leg due to an infection and has survived cancer, etc. She was telling me how difficult the heat is on her stump - the prosthesis creates sweat and she suffers rashes, phantom pains, and so forth. Here I am, feeling sorry for myself because my joints are aching and I'm running a rheumatic fever. Where do I get off feeling sorry for myself when this brave woman walks in with a prosthetic leg and faces SO many challenges on a daily (sometimes, hourly) basis? The same goes true with the young men and women who have lost their lives fighting in a war halfway across the world - they will NEVER have the opportunity to complain about their joints aching, their children crying, or their mortgage payments being late. How do I dare complain about my issues when those young people have lost their lives? My lifetime is NOT "all about me"...it's about how I effect the lives of others, regardless of what might be interfering with my efforts on any given day.

These are the things that keep me in touch with God and my Self (that Life's Spark that makes me an individual). God isn't striking anyone down with anything - He doesn't exact retribution in the form of accidents, diseases, or suffering. God's Love is beyond anything that we human beings can understand and the closest thing that I can equate to His Love is that of a pet: they do not see race, handicap, superficial beauty, or any of the other things that so use up the time of us human beings - a pet loves us because they just DO.

All of the things that we expereince as human beings are part of the Human Condition - with the "choice of free will" also comes humanity and flaws, and this simple fact is one that keeps me going every day and keeps me humble in the Divine Sight of God. For me, ending my life (either willfully or by neglect) has never been an option because I am Surviving my challenges so that I might help others learn how they might Survive theirs. Nowhere, in any religious or philosophical writings or teachings, can it be read that "Life is Fair." Life is NOT fair, and this is just one of those things that we have to accept and rise above, EVEN if it takes every ounce of courage, effort, and determination that we have.

God bless you!

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