I happen to believe that friends are the most important thing in life. Friends are the people, who on your very worst day, can still make you feel loved and appreciated. When I am sick and miserable, my first instinct is to curl up on the couch and hide in my house. My friends have a particular knack for when I'm not feeling well, I always get a phone call every few hours with someone checking in on me.
As much as my first instinct is to push everyone away and hide from the world, those phone calls remind me that there are people out there who are thinking of me and won't let me be alone.
Don't push the people away who love you the most when times get hard. Hold them closer rather than pushing them away.
It sounds like a simple concept, but I've heard more stories of Lupus patients who have lost their friends or their families because they've pushed them away. You will regret it. You will look back and wish you hadn't let your pain and aches make you not value the people in your life. They are offering to help and to talk with you because they care and that is what makes friendships so special. They have the magic power to make your life better at any moment just by making you smile. All you have to do is let them in.
I consider myself extra lucky because my friends were so frustrated that they couldn't do more to help, that they created this amazing foundation. They all put in hours after work and on weekends to make people understand what Lupus is and raise money so that someday we can find a cure for this crummy disease. That is true friendship. That is why I am such a blessed person, because I have people like this in my life.
I can't tell you how to find friends like these, because I'm still constantly amazed at how lucky I am to have them, but if you have people in your life who care about you, I suggest that you value them and thank them as often as possible for being your friend. Friendship is a two-way street and when your road is a little more winding, like a Lupus patient's may be, just remember how much you appreciate them meeting you half way. I love and appreciate all of the friends I am fortunate to have and I hope that you are able to do the same.
"The only way to have a friend is to be one."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Friday, June 27, 2008
Friends
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2 comments:
I've had lupus over 6 yrs. Want to exchange links.
www.chronicchicktalk.com
Hey Molly, one of my good friends has been suggesting that I read your blog and say hi.
HI
Just skimmed through your last few entries..sounds like you've got it rougher than me with organ involvement. I've done this for nearly 20 years now. I've been told how lucky I am that my main symptoms are 'only' joint pain and fatigue. I could add the mystery symptoms of all kinds and general pain, but most drs wouldn't. Hey, how many drs or nurses have started their conversations with you with "so what makes you think you have lupus"? Always fun, especially if you show them your records and clearly they don't believe that lupus really exists, or if it does, you don't have it because you're not on kidney dialysis!
And you're right, no cure; always fun to explain to people that no, there isn't a cure for everything yet. Some treatments too toxic to be warranted, (if they are, lucky you!) I only have one eye already, so won't risk plaquinel, and I'm starting to pay the price now for not being able to quite get off prednisone in 16 years.
Anyway, didn't mean to give you a rant, which this sounds suspiciously like.....but hey, I bet that you know what it's like that your world expands and contracts based on that random thing, your health....somedays you plan to change the world, remodel your house, get a new job, take the kids to disneyland, whatever. But then woops, that's right, I can't focus farther than what DVDs from the library will get me through the next minute of the next hour of the etc. And yes, i WANT to be out there doing stuff, not home on the couch!!!! Ever feel like there are other hypochondriac people out there who you'd gladly change places with; they could do so much more with lupus than you are?!
Anyway, finally following my friends suggestion, hi, you're not alone, and good luck with everything.
Plus, hooray for me, I've never replied to a blog before ( or looked at one either!) So I'm expanding my horizons.
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