At times, we chronically ill people need to make memories and take time to take them out and enjoy them. Sometimes these memories occurred before our problems started; sometimes they happened during our hard times.
These past two months have been very difficult for me and for my family. So, now I will take some time to remember the past. The first set of pictures took place when I was still active and healthy. The second set are of memories from my 40 years of varying limitations. My last entry is from a post I like.
I hope you enjoy these lighthearted remembrances.
Before
Left: Tom and Bill having fun on this dinosaur at our local park.
Top right: Bill loved to employ his imagination. Playing here on a snow dish holding all his stuffed animals.
Bottom right: Joe and Tom hiked this trail at the Grand Canyon where they found this meteorite. Bill was too young to hike, so waited with me on the Rim.
During
Top left: Teen aged Tom pushes me around while on a camping trip.
Top right: I’m enjoying holding two grandkids while resting in my recliner.
Center right: Joe and me at our 50th anniversary celebration.
Bottom left: a granddaughter pushes me while my son looks on. We are sightseeing in Washington DC.
Bottom right: our families are camping at the beach. I sit in my wheelchair with grandkids hugging me.
Make Time for fun! But Why Should I? How?
Fun and invisible disabilities. Really? On our bad days, that sounds like an oxymoron—impossible to achieve. Maybe during horrible times, you can’t have “fun.” But for a healthy mental state, fun needs to be and can be incorporated into our daily lives.
Fun can be defined as enjoyment or playfulness. It can be something that provides mirth or amusement. It might be as simple as enjoying a joke; maybe as complicated as a difficult craft; or as time consuming as a pet. Outdoor activities. Painting. Crafts. Making jewelry. Mechanics. Landscaping. Limited only by your imagination and ingenuity. And maybe some help.
My journey to fun
What does having fun mean to you? To me, it is crafting.
As a child, one aunt and a grandmother demonstrated how to embroider and crochet. They taught me how to follow patterns and how to create my own work.
During my first two years of incredible pain and weakness, I was only able to do essential personal care, and fun was limited to enjoying my family. After we moved, thereby supposedly leaving behind the cause of my problems, pain decreased yet weakness remained and limitations increased. I struggled to do housework but soon discovered the stress of using all my energy cleaning and cooking. Realizing the impossibility of cleaning everything anyway, I decided to spend a few minutes daily doing something just for me. My stress decreased, and everyone was happier even though others had to help more.
I added cross-stitch and plastic canvas to embroidery and crochet. I recognized a love for designing, which led to making gifts and household decorations. Considering my problems, being able to sit while having fun was critical.
Using a poem our son wrote, I designed, personalized, embroidered and framed two 18×20” pictures, one for each son’s wedding. My first plastic canvas project was a personalized Kleenex holder for my friend. Through the years, I have embroidered, cross-stitched, plastic canvas-ed, and crocheted decorations for our house and gifts for others. For weddings, I designed pillows and cross-stitched pictures with their names and dates. One Christmas, I made special pillows for each grandchild with names, pictures, and hobbies. All these were accomplished a few minutes at a time!
As weakness increased, my crafting moved from needlework to computer graphics.
Now it’s your turn. What can you do? And why should you? To find out, check out the rest of this post.
Now you’ve seen some of my memories
Can you think of some of your own that will lift your spirits? We chronically ill people do need to take time to make memories from the good times in our lives. We need to know we can still have times of fun.
Do you have any memories you’d like to share?
Investigate Further
“How to Prioritize Fun for Improved Mental Health” by Lauren Urban gives helpful ideas for people.
These are beautiful memories to share with us. I love looking back at photos, both my own and others. Sometimes it’s more heartbreaking than not, but other times that nostalgia is warming.
I’m glad you’ve got crafting as an outlet for fun. I’d like to find something, maybe just sketching and colouring, but I’ve not been able to do anything for a very long time. I won’t bore you with that but I just wanted to say I get it. I’m sorry you’ve had to move from what you loved but it’s great you can adapt and move on to computer graphics. I’d love to see some of what you’re up to 🙂
Thanks for liking my photos. Most of my computer graphics are now on this website. I am working right now on trying to make a video ad for our book to put up on YouTube. It isn’t going very well, as I can’t get my software to work correctly. Still working with the tech guys.