Something’s on the way!
When you’re standing in the shower and you get a fab idea to write about, but can’t remember what it was 3 minutes later… Something’s in the works, and it’ll be posted here by the end of tomorrow! In the meantime, why not catch up with these… The five-second MS rant Magnetic voices MS Anxiety The MS blame game Paper dreams Oh my god, I am (so not) dying! Multiple Sclerosis Ireland & Novartis Blog awards! MS Treatments (July 2017) 15 Essential MS Websites (2017) 20 Best Personal Blogs about MS (2017) © Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me, 2011-2017. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner are strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Willeke Van…
Paper dreams
Have you ever wondered, “What exactly is my purpose on our little shining blue ball floating around in our vast universe?” Have you? Congratulations, so have I! It took me the better part of my teenage years to get to the stage where I thought, “Yes! Eureka! Yes, I found out what I am doing here!” Translated, it sounded more like this, “I know where I am going to live!” Part of the master plan that had been hiding in my unconscious mind had already been set in motion, albeit drifting rebelliously between my conscious and the harder to access unconscious level, before mischievously appearing again.
Balancing life and a chronic illness
Oh, you can bet I am willing, I am usually more than willing. When physical restraints curb your potential, you realise that you want so more from your own life, and out of your own reality. Life is moving forward outside your medically induced world, and you feel annoyed when healthy people don’t realise the worth of their bodies, their unused potential. It simply reminds you that being chronically ill sucks.
Then & now
"Following that, I hit writer’s block faster than you can say ‘ABC’. That writer's block has reached the 'XYZ' stage, so I'm nearing a muse that sounds, tastes and smells like coffee. Starbucks. Where I am funnily always full of ideas. Away from notebooks and pens, I scrapped another item from my bucket list in September."
Books? Great medicine!
All joking aside, I cannot even begin to count the number of books I have read since childhood or how many I handled while working in a library. Books become part of life, a friend I will remember forever, a gateway or hiding place where distraction reigns. Just holding them, turning page after page, waiting to be explored, conquered, talked about and put on a shelf waiting to be taken out again. And so the cycle begins again.
Balancing life and a chronic illness
Reality. It’s what’s for breakfast. After some feeble attempts trying to write a few paragraphs the past few weeks, it was back to the drawing board each time. Not good enough. Already done this. Needs more research. Too tired. Not fit enough. You know moments like these, you sit down, determination almost physically squeezing ink out of your pen. Cup of coffee at the ready, you start and a few minutes later you have to hold on, waiting for energy to kick your bum to open up your half-closed eyes. Reality. Seamus Heaney once said “writing is a snapshot of consciousness”. I was lucky being semi-conscious this week. I could hardly make sense of myself during those few moments I tried to put pen to paper.
I’m an ex and I’m lovin’ it!
"I used to be a lot of things. Busy. Book addict. Ireland lover. Passionate. College student… and perhaps a tad crazy also. But then friends started saying that I was “slowly turning into a blonde”. Physical discrimination on the basis of hair colour aside, I felt they had a point. Concentration skills went from hero to zero. Walking from the couch to the fridge a massive undertaking. In tears in front of the staircase after work because I had to sleep for an hour before being able to scale its height."
