macular degeneration, macular, diagnosis Charmed Life – My Macular Degeneration Journey/Journal

Charmed Life

Just got another call from the transportation people. The first call I got had them picking me up a little after 7 to get to school by 8:30. (A long time in the van and they still get me there after the day starts). Now I am supposed to be picked up around 8. Thinking something broke down again. Lovely.

I am also sneezing and snotting. Double lovely. The last time I can remember being really sick (not of my own doing a la food poisoning!) was when the region went underwater a few years back. Every once in a while Mother Nature likes to let us know who is really in charge; you know. Anyway, I volunteered with the clean up crew and came down with a beautiful case of the ‘flood mud crud’. Germ cocktail coming at ya. Hopefully this won’t be as bad.

Which is a long-winded way of getting at my page topic: perseverance. When I was – literally – looking for motivation, I found not only James Clear’s page on sisu, the Finnish version of true grit on steroids, but also some stuff he had written on something very similar. Clear wrote about the mindset you need to have to keep going in adverse circumstances.

Clear wrote many people allow their failures to define them. I fail because I am a failure. Instead he suggests we should define ourselves not as people who are always failing but, instead, as people who are always striving.

Yes, I failed this time but I am a person who keeps trying. Clear says failures are discrete events in a life and no more.

Sort of: it is not the beads. It’s the string. Does that make sense? You know those charm bracelets they sell? The ones that you put charms representing events in your life? Each of those charms is just a discrete event but you are the bracelet that keeps going along and holdings everything together. Makes sense to me, but my mind is strange (withhold the snide comments, please).

So, that is the idea Clear put forward. It is not being late for work (as I am really, really going to be today). It is not coming down with a cold. It is not being told BOTH of the clinical trials you are signed up for are ‘stalled’ (forgot to mention that one before!). It is not even playing level 454 of Panda Pop and thinking you are never, ever going to get to level 455!!!

What it is about is showing up for the game. It is about persevering in the face of what appear to be overwhelming odds. It seems about defining yourself not by your failures but by your persistence.

In short? Keep on keeping on.

Next: Come Ski With Me

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