“healthy” isn’t the same for everyone

Trigger warning for talking about weight loss/gain. In the fall of 2017, when I was 19 years old, I lost a lot of weight. I was on a medication for chronic migraine that was working well at first, but did come with a lot of side effects — including weight loss. I didn’t mind the

When Love Feels Like A Waste

“Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” -Alfred Lord Tennyson “But what is grief, if not love persevering?” -from WandaVision (I haven’t watched it, I just really love this quote) Throughout my life, but especially over the last year or so, I’ve at times felt like my love

Stop Using Ableism To Defend Your Politics

This is an excellent article (that I believe the author still updates from time to time, though I could be mistaken) that explains what some ableist terms are, replacements that aren’t offensive or discriminatory, and why the terms are ableist. I’ve referred back to it multiple times personally, and recommend it often to others when

Ten Years

Being chronically ill impacts every area of life. It has touched my productivity levels and involvement in school, in jobs, in volunteer work, in churchgoing, in family gatherings, just to name a few things. There are a lot of feelings wrapped up in this day & this month for me. There were definitely times I

I Wasn’t Looking for a Side A Church

http://www.comingout4christians.net/side-a-side-b-primer.html explanation of Sides A & B if you’re unfamiliar with these terms  Side A: LGBTQIA+ affirming, anti-conversion therapy Side B: LGBTQIA+ non-affirming, anti-conversion therapy Side X: LGBTQIA+ non-affirming, pro-conversion therapy —————————————————————————————————————————————– I wasn’t looking for a Side A church. I’ve been in Side B and Side X environments my whole life. While many of the

Progress

I had a neurologist appointment this week. I’ve come to expect, through almost ten years of being chronically ill, that doctor appointments can come with their own emotions. Relief and validation when after countless appointments and tests, an answer is found. Exhaustion and disappointment when “we can’t find anything wrong with you”. Sadness when a

Some Things I Wrote This Week

It’s not uncommon for me to draw from things I and others write on social media to include in my blog or to spur some more thoughts on. So, today, I’ll share some things I’ve shared on social media over the past week.   tw/cw/cn – pet death [about Snowflake, my 14-year-old cat who was

Life As A Sick Person

One of the conversations I regularly take part in, both in online and offline interactions, is about chronic illness and disability. A recent tweet I saw sparked the thoughts for this blog post – it was a person asking how phrases like “you let the pain win too much” affect various disabled/chronically ill people, especially

When Rest Is Elusive

I have been exhausted lately. It’s not like it’s unexpected or unusual for me. Fatigue has often been a part of my life since I became chronically ill as a 7th grader. Some days I’m more tired than others, but it’s always there, as with my other chronic illnesses/chronic illness symptoms. I don’t always have

Politics: My Previous Avoidance, And Current Engagement

If you know me in real life, you probably know that for a long time, any kind of remotely political discussion (or any discussion of anything remotely controversial, for that matter) was very stressful for me. I want to explain why that was, and why even though it still can be stressful for me, I’m