Seasonal Reflections

Good Morning, I am glad someone found a way for you to enjoy a Christmas service. I can imagine the joy in your heart. Thanks to a caring person where ever they may be. Have a happy new year in 2022 and thanks for the Clinic Connect that binds each of us in a different way. Stay healthy and safe in the days to come. KLH

Merry Christmas, Laurie. You’re always a beacon of light and hope, my dear. I wish you a very healthy year ahead as well as all of our Connect family! For those of us who don’t have a houseful of friends and family this year, wow, we sure have an extended family here in this forum!

I love the way you signed your message…Ever Hopeful.

“Ever Hopeful” is the foundation for those of us always looking for a positive outcome!
There are so many of us in this Connect forum with the same zest for life, the over-comers, those who persevere through adversity. In our house we call it the sprit of endurance. Laurie, (@artist01), @ess77, @jakedduck1, @lioness, @athenalee are just a tiny few of the members whom I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know in my ‘less than one year’ as a mentor. I never expected to feel the level of emotional connection with so many people I’ll never meet in person!
You all touch my heart. The overwhelming level of support and encouragement all of our members share; to lift each other, to offer hope and a shoulder to lean on is so heartwarming and leaves me, Ever Hopeful.

The holiday season always inspires renewed hope, which we all desperately need. So whatever your reason for the season, I hope it brings peace, harmony and contentment to you and your families.

Merry Christmas and best wishes for Happy and Healthy New Year for all of us!

Oh, finally I can imagine I am not the only person to dance "thanking God I have no toothache." When I hurt nowhere on my body or in it," I am thrilled and immediately "over do" the hourse because tha works are always left undone. The next few days are basically a recuperation with all the glorious music I can find. Music always pulls me out of morosity while working well on the pain..
I am 82 and have had, or so it seems, only autoimmune problems which began when I was 5 years old. The beginning event was a smallpox shot while in a Japanese concentration camp in the Philippine Islands. Other than the fact I almost died from the ensuing infection, we found mostly anything "new" can be ignored but sometimes one or the other will make a painful entry into my physical consciousness. Then I begin the merry-go-round of trying to "figure it out" and force myself to dance to music again..
Normally we, my doctors, specialists and I, do not actually figure it out. We settle on a name with a group of very similar discomforts, I get directions for a new med which works for awhile or even several years. That is when I eventually discard the whole sitiuation as the "problem" seems to either be gone or surpassed by another (new) one.
I was happy to read your note. I hope you will write again.

I was thrilled to read that you appreciated my note on not dancing because I had no toothache. Thank you for sharing with us. I was thrilled realizing that I was not selected by God to help Him carry the burden of the world. I was thrilled realizing that I was not a bad person because I was angry to have to carry on the burden of bitterness, loneliness. Yesterday I realized that my life was like going to the grocery store: I have a choice to chose the food I want to purchase but I must bear the responsibility for my choice and have no right to get angry at God if I purchase the food I am allergic to, pay for them, carry them home and eat them. It made me laugh, because I realize that I always blame the rest of the world, get angry at it, become bitter, stay bitter and refuse to move on, and refuse to buy the right food.

I was thrilled to read that you appreciated my note on not dancing because I had no toothache. Thank you for sharing with us. I was thrilled realizing that I was not selected by God to help Him carry the burden of the world. I was thrilled realizing that I was not a bad person because I was angry to have to carry on the burden of bitterness, loneliness. Yesterday I realized that my life was like going to the grocery store: I have a choice to chose the food I want to purchase but I must bear the responsibility for my choice and have no right to get angry at God if I purchase the food I am allergic to, pay for them, carry them home and eat them. It made me laugh, because I realize that I always blame the rest of the world, get angry at it, become bitter, stay bitter and refuse to move on, and refuse to buy the right food.

@loribmt Lori, you are such a shining success as a mentor for this wonderful Mayo Connect group! We all thank you! This group feels like part of my extended family! I'm alone, but I'm never alone. I'm blessed with my loving and supportive family, although they are a big distance away. My family of 3 sons, 4 adult grandchildren, and 4 younger great-grandchildren! I'm like you, Lori. Every day is a gift. "The heart springs eternal within the human breast".
Merry Christmas to all! Ever Hopeful, Laurie

@loribmt Lori, you are such a shining success as a mentor for this wonderful Mayo Connect group! We all thank you! This group feels like part of my extended family! I'm alone, but I'm never alone. I'm blessed with my loving and supportive family, although they are a big distance away. My family of 3 sons, 4 adult grandchildren, and 4 younger great-grandchildren! I'm like you, Lori. Every day is a gift. "The heart springs eternal within the human breast".
Merry Christmas to all! Ever Hopeful, Laurie