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Sunday, March 13, 2011

Saturday, March 12, 2011

MS Awareness Week: Share Videos with MS Community

I was asked to post this (DR):



In the spirit of raising awareness for MS during MS Awareness Week, I wanted to share with you a program MS LifeLines is launching on Monday: Words 4 MS.


Words 4 MS has been created to empower and inspire people in the MS community by encouraging them to share their stories. The program will share individual stories from people living with MS, or people who know someone impacted by MS through selected videos on mslifelines.com. Video submissions should follow the theme of Words 4 MS and include four words to describe a personal achievement (examples: Still Full of Hope, My Mom, My Hero).



People can submit their video and access the full program guidelines and submission criteria at MSLifeLines.com/Words4MS. (Website will be live on Monday, 3/14) Video submissions will be accepted from March 14th through July 13th.



We are hoping you could share this program with your readers via your blog and/or email and continue to raise awareness for this chronic disease. We have included below a brief email you may use to help us get the word out about Words 4 MS, if you would like.



Email to your readers:

Will Never Stop Fighting

Still Full Of Hope

My Mom, My Hero



These are just a few examples of how to tell a story in four words about your personal experience with MS. Are there four inspiring, thought-provoking words that say how you feel, inspire you, or remind you of someone in your life who has helped you through your MS journey?



If so, MS LifeLines is asking you to share your story through video!



Through Words 4 MS, people living with MS or who have a loved one living with MS– like you – will be able to share their individual stories through video that might be revealed on www.mslifelines.com and other possible media outlets. We encourage you to submit a video that showcases how your life has been impacted by MS. Video submissions should follow the theme of Words 4 MS and include your personal, 10-second video depiction of how MS has impacted your lives using four words that describe this story (examples: Still Full of Hope, My Mom, My Hero).



We are asking you to help demonstrate how many people are touched by MS while also helping to raise awareness of this condition by sharing your four words today! Please visit www.mslifelines.com for the official guidelines and submission criteria.



MS LifeLines is an educational support service for people living with MS and their families. programs LifeLines is sponsored by EMD Serono, Inc. and Pfizer Inc.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Looking back to Look forward

Lately I have been feeling some creative inspiration again and I have been looking back at old poetry and journals I wrote at age 23. I found a couple of interesting things. Many things are the same and many are different. Many of the images in my writing are still the same. I still love to be dramatic, and I still am in love with the idea of love :)

I also see the way life has changed. Every day is not a drama. The hard days are not as hard. One of the benefits of age is that it lends perspective. There are still hard days but I guess now I know that the good also comes with the bad. While one day may be a trial, the pain passes quickly and great moments can follow right behind tough ones. Since this blog is "Living with MS!" let me state that I have found these observations to hold true after living almost three years with this diagnoses.

One observation I can share with the newly diagnosed (with relapsing remitting) is that relapses do have an end. Sometimes when you think that some function is irrecoverable, it comes back. It is also easy to get lost in the idea that it's all downhill from the time of diagnoses. Not true: the course of this disease is different for everyone.

My first year was the hardest physically and mentally. At age 34, I am in the best physical condition I have been in since about age 16. I practice yoga every day and physically, I can run circles around my 16 year old students. I have enough perspective on the disease at this point to know that this could also change at any time, but this knowledge is also a gift. When you truly face your mortality and realize that things could change at any time, it makes you value each day of health even more.

Joy is often about valuing what you have, not morning what you have lost or could lose.