Tuesday's Two Cents: Just Like the Wind

You can't see the wind, but you believe it's there, right?

If someone says they have cancer, but you can't see it, you still believe them, right?

Then why not believe people who say they are in excruciating pain or that they are so dead exhausted they can't even lift their arm to put on chapstick (been there on both counts)?

Please remember that just because you can't see what's on the inside, and just because you can't feel what we're feeling, that doesn't mean our bodies aren't very, very sick. The suffering and misery that we who have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia claim we live with is in fact real--just as real as the wind.

~~~

  

Today's the last day to enter to win a $25 shop credit to Katya Valera over at Mal Smiles!

Tuesday's Two Cents: Marriage

In attempt to keep some semblance of my usual schedule this special anniversary week, I now give you my two cents on marriage!

Soon after Daniel and I got married, this thought occurred to me:

This picture was not posed at all, and I have no idea what's going on in it; thus I find it hilarious and rather priceless. :)

It's the truth! Not having to say goodnight and go back to our separate homes every night is literally a dream come true for us. We wanted nothing more than to be together constantly, and we finally can be, except of course when he's at work...

I'll be back tomorrow with Part II of our story. In case you missed Part I, it's right here!

P.S. Linking up with Thinking Out Loud.

Tuesday's Two Cents: Behind Every Great Book

{original photo source}

I know we've all heard "Behind every great man is a great woman." In a past life, I was a freelance editor (I know, I've lived so very long...), and couldn't help thinking the above phrase during my time at that job. ;)

The general public sees a book when it's completed, but editors see them in a different state, sometimes a pretty rough one. The first book I ever edited contained no chapter names or even divisions for chapters--I got to decide where they went and name them accordingly, along with the 5,000 other usual editing tasks of course. One novel I was given liked to change characters' names as the story went on and misnumber its own chapters. Then there's always the completely wrong references given for Bible verses, misquoting celebrities, totally questionable statements, and the occasional heresy. In the 36 books I edited, I feel like I saw it all.

Now keep in mind that editors are only human too, and sometimes things will still manage to slip by. But all this to say, every book you love first went through the hands of someone (and often many someones) who helped make it what it is. Yes, the author brings the book to life, but the editor, whose name is often not given in the finished product, helped sand off the rough edges and polish up every single word so that its greatness can really shine through.

~ ~ ~

Today's the last day to enter to win this Katya Valera necklace! Don't miss out! 

P.S. Linking up with Wake Up Wednesday, Thinking Out Loud, and Be.YOU.tiful Link Party.

Tuesday's Two Cents: Not Ourselves

Back in high school, this verse first really stood out to me. So much so that I included it on my class ring (right opposite the year in Roman numerals--I absolutely love Roman numerals). I know some verses can resonate with people in different ways, but this one really spelled out one thing to me.

Being human, living on earth: it's all we've known. You just live. So for some reason, in our limited human minds, it's really easy to subconsciously feel like we are owed things--health, happiness, wealth, fairness, kindness, success, etc.--simply because we're here. And simply because we're here, we can sometimes get the idea that we're in charge.

Yet we had absolutely nothing to do with our creation and birth, and so we aren't inherently owed anything and certainly not in charge. Yes, God wants what's best for us, including joy and happiness, but we don't just arrive on this earth with a list of rights that we're owed. And He has the say in even whether we breathe another breath or not.

To me, this verse spells out: You didn't put yourself here, so what makes you think you're owed or in charge of anything?

It's all about perspective.

P.S. Linking up with Wake Up Wednesday, Thinking Out Loud, and Be.YOU.Tiful Link Party.

Tuesday's Two Cents: Keep Going

 

Building a business, growing a blog following, raising a farm, earning a degree, writing a book, getting healthy... Any undertaking is exhausting and often discouraging. But great accomplishments never guarantee ease or unending confidence on the journey to success.

It should be noted that one person's great accomplishment is not going to be the same as someone else's. What one person may see as small, another may see as monumental. But whatever your great-accomplishment-to-be is, take a deep breath, and keep going.

P.S. Linking up with Thinking Out Loud,  Lovely Thursdays, and Be.You.Tiful Link Party.

Tuesday's Two Cents: There's a Big Difference

There are so many things in life that I don't know a lot about. Like ... cars, the stock market, metal fabrication, etc. But just because I know practically nothing about them, that doesn't make me stupid. I could take the time to learn about each of them and I'd then no longer be ignorant about the topics.

But this also applies to life experience. If I were about to start college for the first time, for example, and had no idea what college life would be like, how I would juggle everything, how I would handle living in a dorm with loads of other girls, that wouldn't make me stupid either. I would simply be ignorant about such a thing because I'd never experienced it before. And experiencing that new event would remove any ignorance on the subject.

So if there's something new happening in your life that you are completely overwhelmed about, like a new problem or a new situation that you've had no experience with, small or huge, don't beat yourself up about it or let others make you feel like you're stupid simply because you don't know all about something they might know all about--you're only ingorant on the matter because you haven't experienced it before, and stupidity and ignorance are two totally different things.

And ignorance has a whole lot of potential.

P.S. Linking up with Link Love!

Tuesday's Two Cents: Life Is Too Short For Compromise

Only a few quotes I've found over the past few years have really blown me away. This is one of them, and it really leaves little to be said.

But being the writer I am, I can't help but just say this: whatever it is you really want to do, whatever dream it is, however crazy it may seem to most people--throw the "reasonable" you've been beaten over the head with out the window and do it. What dreams are ever reasonable anyway?

Tuesday's Two Cents: Climbing the Mountain

I know it probably seems like I was just here, listing just a few of the many things that are constantly going wrong with me in the health department. Thanks to being rescheduled, I now am finally to go back to the doctor tomorrow to get my stitches out and my biopsy results. And also to discuss yet another new, potentially very concerning problem that I have a feeling I'll have to go to yet another doctor for. It really never ends.

I just really wish the mountain was smooth. Just let me sit at the bottom and breathe and that's it for a while. But then we'd never get anywhere, would we?

I have no idea who originally said this, and Google doesn't either. But they sure nailed it.

Keep climbing.

The Blue Moon Solution

Deep stuff today.

So, this blue moon thing. I'd always heard of it, but not until semi-recently did I bother to pay attention to the thought long enough to find out that they are indeed not blue. I was not too pleased--why such lovely imagery for something that doesn't really happen ... once in a blue moon?

That's really it; I just wished to express my disappointment.

And I figure I should add that thanks to this disappointment, I have devised a necklace to help make up for it. Behold: Katya Valera's Blue Moon Necklace.

You can find it here in my Etsy shop. :)

P.S. Don't forget to enter my giveaway! Learn more and enter here.

A Silver Lining

It seems like ever since about the fall of 2011, I really can't catch a break. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, have been sick, been to the ER how many times, had tests done, and met with one new health problem after the other ever since.

The past month alone, I've discovered what seems to be a new allergy, been sick twice, and gotten six moles removed all over my body in the most inconvenient places (TMI?)--all of which have to be doctored and taken care of for two weeks. At that point I'm to go back to get the stitches removed and find out the results of the biopsies. All this while juggling the many changes and treatments that come of my bi-weekly doctor appointments and the attempt to heal--or anymore at least help--this sick body of mine.

And that's just me and my health (or lack thereof)--that's not to mention all the job and financial problems going on right now, or the serious health problems of so many of my family members.

I don't know why God seems to allow so much of the same kind of problem to happen to people--some people seem to have accident after accident, while some people, like me, never seem to reach the end of new health obstacles.

I wish life could be easy for once. Just to get up and live each day without a thought about how sick I feel, or what medicines I have to take when, or what bills won't get paid.

But I guess I didn't put myself here on this earth, and the One Who did probably has some pretty good reasons for all this, huh?

If nothing else...

Rest for Perfectionists

As a perfectionist, it's easy to agonize over ... everything. Doing things right and doing them well is fine--and that's how all things should be done. But we have to draw the line between doing our best and killing ourselves. We overachievers must give ourselves permission to relax, for our own good.