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Love Beats Hate — and It’s A...

This is my husband’s birthday and an especially appropriate day to write about Love.

I consider myself to be a spiritual person although I’m not a member of any established religion. It’s sad that in these times that statement alone might be cause for a “religious” person to think less of me.

We are living in extremely difficult and sad times. My feeling is that most of the hate and divisiveness in the world today is really about something else entirely — FEAR. Also some stems from people desperate to protect their material wealth.

We fear what we don’t know or understand. We hear stories and rumors about bad things done by people of ethnic, racial or religious groups other than our own, and sadly sometimes the stories are facts. But if we stop and think things through, how many “bad” people do we actually know, or even ever encounter? How many kind and loving people do we know? I would guess we all know many more of the latter than of the former.

Who said, “Love thy neighbor”? Who said, “Love thine enemies”? Who tried to teach others to be tolerant, understanding and forgiving? Everyone knows there are people of every color, ethnic and religious persuasion who do bad things.

Perhaps the next time we each meet or encounter someone different from ourselves, we could just stop and think about who that person really is; look past any obvious physical, sexual or religious differences and into his or her eyes and then further into his or her soul; see them as another human being with the same feelings, strengths, weaknesses, fears and capacity for love that we each have.

My biggest fear is that if we don’t all start learning to do this, humanity — the group of which we are all members — has no hope of survival.

I choose Peace and Love over fear and hate — anytime.

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Have hobbies helped me cope with migrain...

I am laughing at myself because I’m tempted to make this post one word:  “NO”

Still Standing (c)2010

During my migraine years, debilitating attacks have often not only prevented me from pursuing or enjoying hobbies but also from simply engaging in everyday, normal activities!

I most wanted to spend any time not  in migraine hell with my family, enjoying my children, or needed to spend that time and energy at work, on chores, and doing regular life stuff.

Many of the activities I enjoy — reading, writing, music, art, hiking, tennis, travel, photography — are severely and negatively impacted by migraine pain and illness. Once I crocheted snowflakes for Christmas gifts and remember bawling while trying to concentrate on the stitches through the pain. I recall taking college courses and struggling to memorize material for exams through blinding migraine pain. (more…)

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Independence, Liberty Bell poem...

I so enjoyed this poem yesterday from Gloriana Casey, one of the poets with work in Migraine Expressions, that I wanted to share and spread its message.

“VOICE OF THE LIBERTY BELL”
by Gloriana Casey for 7 /4/ 2009

In Philadelphia, I live,
a grand and giant bell.
And long my life, and journeys made.
the stories I can tell. (more…)

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a migraine ·and life· journey welcome...

The Book

The Book"

A migrainiac’s journey.” That’s what I wanted to call my blog. So why didn’t I? Because I don’t want to in any way contribute to the misconceptions and stereotypes of migraine disease and the millions of people who have it. Migraine is not psychological. It is a physical, neurobiological disease. Those of us who live with migraine are just like people who live with epilepsy, diabetes, Parkinson’s or any other major disease or disorder. Another reason is that I wanted this blog to also be about other aspects of LIFE, the  larger journey we share. (more…)