Follow your bliss...: June 2015

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Peonys in bloom

The showy white peony in my garden came into bloom June 4th so I filled my camera's memory disk with hundreds of photographs as I know they only stay for such a short time...

They're very O'Keeffe with their curves and waves...

They were so beautiful right up until the heavy rains came last week and left behind something that looked like broken angel wings...I look forward to next year's show...

Their frothy ruffles and lacy wings remind me of the old time Hollywood stars of the silver screen wrapped in chiffon...so of course, they are dramatic posing for their portraits in black and white...

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.