Lifeline Mailbox
Oley Member Grateful for Support from Online Forum
There should be a quota for bad breaks in life, a variation on spreading the wealth. But only in dime-novels and Sunday morning cartoons from the 1950s will you find life presented as a fair deal, where the good guys always win in the end. Real life is sloppy, unfair, filled with hard knocks, and it takes a lot of chutzpah to keep dancing.
The
slap in the face is that just because your life has been woefully complicated by
an often debilitating, chronic state of ill-health, it doesn’t mean that you are
suddenly exempt from developing other equally difficult, interlacing ailments,
like wheels within wheels. Fair has nothing to do with it. Those of us with
short bowel syndrome, or any of its many prodigies, are more familiar with
diarrhea, dehydration, nausea, and the challenges of nutritional compromises
than anyone has a right to be.
In many ways, I have been tested as I could never have anticipated over the past few years, with a myriad of life-altering circumstances that rocked my world for quite a while. I was at an all-time low, buried beneath the weight of sorrow-upon-sorrow. No doubt some of you could echo those words with accounts of your own. Feeling not up to the fight, you have met your Goliath...your Cyclops, and you haven’t the grit or strength of purpose to fight one more round.
When sorrow and the weight of being overwhelmed takes up residency in your life, it is our kneejerk response to want to crawl under the covers and never come out, or worse. Living alone, without the support of family or friends to speak of, magnifies difficulties exponentially. Mounting health and personal problems can take on a life of their own.
So what are we to do when we are besieged with problems that sweep over us with the force of a nor’easter—beyond hunkering into a fetal position and rocking back and forth or shaking an angry fist at God? The [Oley] Inspire Web site was my Moirai, where people pulled up alongside me, bathed me with kindness and empathy, then armed me with tools to shake off the dust, dry the tears, and become a strong advocate. It was when action displaced fear that I found the five smooth stones to combat my Goliath. Sure, it’s hard, but the fog dissipates and clarity is restored and, by the grace of God and the help of others, we are given the opportunity to pass it forward.
There are those who I would like to thank personally for their tremendous help and friendship, but in doing so I would undoubtedly omit someone. So, instead, I trust you will each accept my heartfelt gratitude for your investment in my life. I couldn’t have done it without you.
—Judi Smith, Regional Coordinator
LifelineLetter, September/October 2011