For these past few days I have been doing some mixed media art and really enjoying it. Working with different textures is pretty meditative - makes my mind drift off to think of other things. I have been doing writing every day and picking a sub-topic, just letting my mind unfold and reflect on the experience I was recollecting. Recently I was writing about the support group experience I had when I was newly diagnosed with M.E/CFS when I was in my early 20s. It really was an eye opener as I recall the lady who came to see me, to tell me about the support group meetings, she walked in, or should I say, hobbled in, on walking sticks. She could barely walk and told me that she had been ill for 20+ years. She was in her early 60s (I think, though don't quote me).
How I did not want to hear this? At 20, it wasn't what I wanted to listen to. I wanted to speak to someone who had got well, who had overcome it and re-healed.
And so this is what I was writing about in my pink book. It made me realise, in that moment all those 21 years ago, that I wanted to read about the success story of a young person - I wanted inspiration and hope. That's what made me want to write this book ... and that's why I will keep on with it, hoping it will see the light of day, in whatever format. To help and inspire someone else who was newly diagnosed. I feel lucky to have come through the ill health and only now, all these years later can turn back to write about it.
It has been a beautiful day here in France, the sun shining and the forests full of wildlife.
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