PFAM Call For Submissions: Looking For Inspiration

I can be a bit of a pessimistic curmudgeon on my best days, and it's way too easy to slip into a pity party for myself about the impact my debilitating chronic illness has had on my life over the past 4+ years. Especially when I'm flared, as I currently am from a weeklong trip to Chicago to visit my extended family.


More about the highlights and lowlights of that trip later; today I'm getting ready to host the next edition of Patients For A Moment, the blog carnival about, for, and by people with chronic illnesses. The edition will go live here on November 9 and submissions are due to me by midnight Pacific Time on Sunday, Nov. 6.


I don't believe in always being cheerful when I feel like life sucks, so I try to give myself the space to express my feelings (and thanks to everyone who reads my blog, since this is the second most place I express those!) for a day or two, and then work on cheering myself up, or if that's too big a stretch, to find a way to feel hopeful again. 


I'm sure I'm not alone since depression often goes hand-in-hand with chronic illnesses and disabilities.


So what do you do to get yourself out of the doldrums when you fall into a funk? What (or who) inspires you and gives you hope? Where have you found inspiration when you weren't even looking for it? How do you keep on keeping on when your pain is high and your fatigue is even higher?

For me, sometimes it requires getting a reality check to remind myself that however lousy my chronic illnesses are, there are people out there who are coping  (better!) with much more than I do. Sometimes it's as easy as getting to snuggle with my kid as she reads aloud to me (which is so cool!). Often, very often, it's reading books and/or blogs by people who have dealt themselves with these kinds of life-altering changes chronic illness forces. And chocolate always helps (at least until it hits my hips). :)

If you'd like to participate in this edition of PFAM, and I hope you do!, send me an email at sickmommaPDX (at) gmail dot you-know-what with the following:

• Your name (as you’d like it to appear in the post).
• Your blog’s name.
• Your post’s title.
• Your post’s URL.

Meanwhile, I'll share one of my deepest secrets of a guaranteed pick-me-up: I listen to a playlist of (modern) Disney music that I made for my daughter about a year ago. I just find it's impossible for me to not smile when I listen to Amy Adams sing "Happy Working Song" (from Enchanted) or Donny Osmond sing "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" (from Mulan) or a duet from Aladdin by people I've never heard of called "A Whole New World."

Thanks!