Aragorn was cool and all, but Sam was the real hero of Lord of the Rings.
This is my first post in a few weeks – I was working on a post about fears, but it never felt right. After weeks of re-writing and deleting, time to shift.
Life is full of frustrations. Whether living with a chronic illness or not, we all have times where things just don’t seem to move or progress as we hope. Since my audience is likely more familiar with T1, I will say that the rollercoaster that can be blood glucose does nothing to make that easier. Whether its dealing with a difficult project at work (or school), never making headway on the things on your to do list, or waking up and testing to realize that your dexcom had been 200 pts low the whole night and you weren’t in tight control after dinner (not that I had that happen last week). Whatever they are, these frustrations, especially the small things, just bundle and build until you have ripped your dog’s chew toy in half, and can’t even blame him for the stuffing everywhere. For the record, I have not ripped any of Echo’s toys yet, it’s been all him, and he definitely needs no help from me – this week alone we lost 4 toys. We will miss you Ms. Banana.
But this is where Sam comes into play. Near the end of the Two Towers, Sam gives a speech about not giving up that sends shivers down my spine each time. If you haven’t seen it, look it up this instant. Don’t wait to finish the blog post, go to youtube now.
Anyway, when Sam says “Even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer” – this is what my mind pictures as the manifestation of the feeling when I get past the frustrations, and on to something that could really be great.
What does this look like in reality? I am glad you asked (that’s right, I hold all the power here)
I met a good friend for coffee today to talk about an upcoming ConnecT1D event. Sure the topic had some exciting pieces, but event planning isn’t the most exhilarating of topics. This event has also been the source of a good deal of frustration for me over the last year. Our conversation (while at times meandering) was so engaging and energizing, that two and a half hours had gone by without me noticing. We came up with really interesting ideas, but also discussed topics so far out of the agenda, I honestly do not know how we got there. The energy I felt leaving this meeting was exactly how I envision that of the energy released during the forming of a bond between two atoms (I know, some serious nerd talk in this post). I am so filled with ideas and enthusiasm that I had to put pen to paper. (Or I guess fingers to keyboard? No, that’s just not a good phrase; let’s stick with pen to paper.)
The point of all this? I have momentum. Now I want to know what frustrations you have had, and want to hear about your moment where the sun shined out the clearer. Your endothermic reaction. Your energy surge from breaking through. Share at the bottom of the post, or post to facebook or twitter with #allalphanobeta.