Blogosphere

First of all, a big thanks to anyone who responded to Steve's blog with some encouragement. It was much appreciated.


One thing about Joel's disease, it has connected me to some of the very nicest and best people. I would start to list them all, but then I would accidentally leave someone out because my brain isn't that great, and then someone might have hurt feelings, even though it was accidental. So, I'm not going to do that.


But I do want to point one person out, cause she too has a blog. Her name is Jen, and she has a little girl named Lydia Eileen who has the same condition as Joel does, only worse, if you can believe it. And I have her blog listed on my blog, now! So if you are interested, you can read about how things are with Lydia. And if you are a praying person, you can pray too.

Cause I'm just going to be blunt here. Lydia is really not doing well. Jen and her husband know that she really isn't going to live much longer. But in the meantime, Lydia is having these awful seizures, and they just can not get them under control. ("They" meaning the doctors.) These seizures are distressing for Lydia, and distressing for mommy and daddy. So if you pray, please take the time to pray for them, and for Lydia, most especially that she can have some peace from these seizures and some good and happy last days.

From Jen's blog, I got onto some other really good blogs too. I put two of the ones I personally wanted to follow, up on my blog too. I realize more and more that the world is full of people who are hurting, who are grieving and in pain. Of course. Like this is news.

So these blogs are sad. Pearl Music is written by a mom who just lost her baby. He was premature, and stillborn, due to a gene defect. Waiting for Morning is written by a mom who lost twin girls, about a year and a half ago. They were born very prematurely and did not survive. Yeah. Pretty heavy, sad stuff.

But I like to read them. I like to read them, because even though they make me cry, I love the honesty. I can relate to the pain, though the circumstances are different. Let's face it, pain is pain. Truly. When you get right down to it.

We human beings like to sit and count our wounds, thinking, even when we don't verbalize it "My wounds are the deepest. My battles are the hardest. No one else REALLY gets it, because they have no idea about THIS kind of pain." Come on, I know you do it! I know you do it, cause sometimes I catch myself doing it too!

But more and more I see, that pain is pain is pain. Sure it is great to find someone who shares the same exact circumstances. They can understand in a special way.

But when it all comes down to it, pain is terrible and excruciating and horrible and seems never ending. It knocks you out and knocks you flat. It throws you into pits of mire and slime of depression, self-pity, and apathy. It wears away at you til you feel like sandpaper has polished all the words off of you. It makes you feel like you can not breathe, it makes you feel like you can't stop gasping for breathe, like a suffocating fish. It is a surprising stab, it is a dull, throbbing ache, it is both at once. It makes time your enemy, it makes sleep an elusive, much sought opiate, it makes life a sickly sweet pastry that you want to puke up as it sits so heavy in your stomach.

I hope that is not too graphic for you, but if you can relate to anything in that above paragraph, I think you can relate to me, no matter what your circumstances are. Many things are individual, but some things are universal.

And so I read these blogs. Not just because they are honest. Because they also fill me with hope. I see that while some battles are lost, for the most part, I trust the war will be won. One of my favorite books of all time says "Other people have passed this way too, and they even learned to sing of it afterward." And that is what these other blogs make me feel inside.

So, if you are interested, take a look. But you can't stop reading my blog. No matter how good these other ones are, you still better read mine!!