Beyond the Pain

After 9 months I was finally able to write a new newsletter today.  YEAH!!!

That happy event took place because of, at least, three things.

1. Less pain
2. More energy (mainly psychic although the physical IS important)
3. A new strategy

The first two things are pretty obvious. So, I want to focus on the new writing strategy.

But, before I do that I just want to make the observation that it took 9 months to come up with this idea. That gives you some idea of how stupid-making Fibromyalgia can be. My brain was like a V8 firing on 2 cylinders. Couple that with very little 'up' time and you have a recipe for not getting much accomplished.

Okay, back to the strategy.

The germ of the idea came to me the other day when I was thinking about Twitter. You can read about the Twitter concept here. Twitter limits Tweets (your message to the Twitterverse) to 140 characters.

I've been yearning to write for months. Suddenly when thinking about Twitter I had an idea: What if I set a limit for myself of writing a 140 word newsletter? Then, today, I thought: What if I aim to write AND publish it in an hour?

So, I gave it a shot! And, IT WORKED!

I'm so excited!!

And, I'm going to try the strategy again by applying the principle to writing my blog posts.

I'm in a funny space.

But then that's how it often is during the swings between pain and no pain.

The last two days have been horrendously painful, as they often seem to be after my acupuncture treatment.

Now the pain is dropping and as I've dropped my pain-freed-up brain starts going ADD-like.

I want to write but what should I write.

Seem to have written a lot about the negatives of this condition … but then lately there's been a lot of pain. But, part of my brain is prodding to be positive and write positive. Must be my Inner Polly Anna nagging. But, I can't think of anything postive at the moment.

My coach and I talked about this the other day. How fast we, especially I, can judge the experience rather than just experiencing the experience. I loved what she said (paraphrase), "Be in the swing. It just is!" I think that's true but man it IS tough to do.

However, I will focus on the positive. So, what's one positive thing about this illness?

Well. I've found out who my real "friends" are. You know the ones who stick with you through thick and thin. And, me canceling lunch 8 times because of last minute pain flare ups. And, postponing coaching sessions. And, just being so bloody unpredictable.

So thanks Brenda Collins, Alex Brown, Steve S., Tafline Lachmuth, Todd Porter, Joyce Tutty, Ruth Lachmuth, Ed Lachmuth, Lynn Lambert, Barry Morris, Trisha Cupra, James Huggins, Jenifer Hofmann, Clarence Thomson, Matt Lachmuth, and all the folks from the Tent whose names I can't remember at the moment, for your support, advice, encouragement, and understanding.