When I first started this blog, I think I’ve mentioned this before, I planned on using it primarily as a healing and coping tool; I’d just learned I had type-2 (T2) diabetes and was suffering from some very serious symptoms from it. Many years ago I’d done the same thing on a blog, now long defunct, to cope with (and help other with) my neurological disorder and it was a great help then so, I figured, it would be again.
Fifteen years ago there were only a hundred or so recognized/diagnosed cases of Cauda Equina Syndrome (CES), which is what I have. Diabetes, especially T2, is way more commone than CES; it was then and it still is today. Even though CES is being properly diagnosed sooner now it still remains a minority disorder, especially cases as severe as mine. It didn’t take me too long to figure out unless I just wanted an online journal there wasn’t going to be much content here. And as I began to get my disease under control (still working at it though it’s much better) I saw there was going to be even less content, perhaps even making this not only unnecessary but a waste of time.
I have some pretty limited mobility, partly due to the nerve damage I’ve suffered and partly – increasingly to be honest – due to arthritis in my back and ankle; its in other joints from other issues as well but we’ll leave this here for the point I’m going after. Winter was pretty tough on me this year and kept me in a lot. And when I say “in” I mean not just inside the house but also upstairs, out of my garage workshop where I do my “tinkering”; I have a couple of hobbies that occupy my time and energy, at my doctor’s suggestion, and not being able to get to the workshop made me battle with something closer to depression than just the “winter blues”.
Somewhere along the way I found this new to me thing called haiku challenges. It turns out there are a lot of “challenges” out there in the interwebs: writing, poetry, haiku, photography and probably a whole slew I’m either forgetting or unaware of. Having enjoyed writing haiku and other poetry in my youth, still enjoying writing over the years, including up to now, this seemed like the perfect way to have something I could do without having to get to the workshop! So, off I set to try my hand, after not writing a haiku in two-plus decades. Amd you know what? It was still fun for me! I was learning techniques and terminology and all kinds of things I had no clue about from my junior high and high school writing classes. Soon I found a couple of these challenges or prompts and I dove right in, knowing my compositions weren’t the best (but hopefully were/are improving), and helping break out of that grip of depression before it got too tight.
If you read much of my postings, be they here, my other blog, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or anyplace I might be forgetting, I’m certain there’s one thing you have (or quickly will) realized: I am a Christian, a child of the one living God, a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Now, if you had any doubt, misgivings, uncertainty, etcetera, they should be 100% cleared up, dispelled, straightened out, or however you’d like to word it. My faith shows through in everything I do: it is a huge part of my life and something I gloss over or conceal in any way. I actually like wrote daily devotions for a fairly large private email list: five time a week for three or four years. And I’ve written articles, lessons, outlines, and other biblically based virtual-papers as well, all of which I have kept – intentionally – separate on the other blog. So, even though my intention was to keep the content separate I soon realized I can’t because of how large a part of my life my faith is.
At the end of the day, I’m just another child of God negotiating the potholes of this life on my way Home.
This piece was written, in part, I’ve the last several weeks. Today I completed it for the first day of Blogging 101. If you are interested in some of the things mentioned in this post just poke around a bit; it’s all here or HERE on my other blog.
Potholes in the Road of Life 