Tag Archives: inspiration

Guest Post: All about able women

This insightful post by El Gibbs about disabled women dismissed has elicited some great comments, I’m glad to see.

Buttercups

Buttercups.  Credit: LifeLoveLyme

Buttercups.
Credit: LifeLoveLyme

One of the many reasons I love getting away to the house I visit in a small community in Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay: Buttercups.

Back in my suburban neighborhood, herbicides have wiped out “weeds” in every perfectly manicured yard. But a few weeks ago at my get-away, I saw the cheery flowers in the photo above growing in the yard across the street with wild abandon. No weed killer there.

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Video: Rachel’s Story: What It’s Like to be a Teen with Lyme

I like so many things about Rachel’s YouTube video, I hardly know where to start. She’s so earnest, so honest, so insightful.

The details she gives of life with lyme at 14 along with her perspective at age 20 reveals so much. Her juxtaposition of “then” and “now” is simply brilliant.

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Key Lime Pie Days

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Photo: LifeLoveLyme

Someone special took me on a drive along the Chesapeake Bay in southern Maryland the other day, and we discovered a cozy place serving up key lime pie made from the tried-and-true recipe of the previous owner. The minute I saw the sign advertising pie in front of the old house-turned-coffee house, I knew I had to have some.

Sitting in the warm, inviting front room and savoring every bite of tart, creamy deliciousness and crumbly graham cracker crust was the perfect celebration of my first day without Lyme symptoms in five months.

 

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Video: Making a Difference

On a day like today when pain and other symptoms ratchet up and I am totally lymed-out, I can’t get outside to restore my spirits with a healing dose of Nature.

I’ve found, however,  that online natural history videos can be a decent substitute.  I’ve really been missing my work in ocean conservation, so this one called “Saving Valentina” by the Great Whale Conservancy caught my attention.

I share it here not only because it is one of the most amazing wildlife videos I have ever seen, but also because it says so much about life. Sure, it conveys the stunning beauty of whales.

But this story also celebrates the individual action that can make a big difference: Action by a few people in a tiny boat with one small knife saving the life of one of the largest creatures on Earth.

It makes me think of the lyme literate doctors who act with knowledge, courage, and perseverence to help those whose lives are compromised and endangered by lyme disease at a time when the medical community is divided by controversy over this illness. 

Valentina’s boundless joy in the last three minutes of the video says it all. See for yourself.