Follow your bliss...: March 2007

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Celestial Spring

This is a mixed media, watercolor, pencil, water-soluble graphite shavings, pastel shavings, and color pencil...I think that's everything...lots of splashing, lots of color, and lots of thought...I have looked the spots off it today, I'm thinking it might be done...

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Rites of Spring

This little drawing goes well with this "melty" day...the birds at my feeder have started to make their spring time songs in spite of the three feet of snow drifted around our yard. My dog Max is shedding his winter coat, he leaves tufts of black fuzz on everything, even on the snow. There is a change in the light, the feel in the air, the day is as changeable as the texture of this drawing.

Me and Fibromyalgia...the good news is, it's not going to kill me.

I was finally diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 2007 after years of being told my illness was all in my head. My Fibro is everyday fatigue with body aches, mostly tolerable, but when I have a flare-up, which can be triggered by stress, hormones, or being over tired from over-doing it, I get the full body pain, including chest pains (yes, these are scary, like an elephant standing on my chest.) Thankfully, it doesn't hurt to take a breath, but I feel breathless, I just do yoga and breathing exercises to stretch and breathe to ease through the worst of it, NSAIDs help to cut the pain, and naps are always a necessary thing when needed (but hard to do while at the day job!) It's a balancing act to manage, I take advantage of the good days, lay low on the bad ones, and very often, push through in spite of the bad days...some mornings I wish I could stay in bed, but I'm glad that I get up and about, very often 'the kinks' work themselves out. I refuse to take the recommended pharmaceutical band-aids on the market, I tried one once, and I don't like feeling like a zombie. I keep active with my creativity, I think that's the key to my overcoming this obstacle every day...and I have my Fred and our son, five cats, and one dog named Max.