Taking it up again!

You may remember that I had to give up knitting and crocheting as it hurt my hands too much. It was so disappointing!  

I was visiting my twin sister one day and I found her crocheting a beautiful baby shawl. Now her hands are sore with her lupus and arthritis, and when I asked her how she managed and  told her I could not longer knit or crochet, she encouraged me to take it up again. 

She assured me that her hands had improved since she took up her handcrafts again, and I resolved to give it a try. My hands improved and I had better flexibility in my hands and wrists. I was rapt! I needed to do something creative and those last few months

With fibromyalgia it is important to find something to take my mind off pain, and I find knitting or crocheting does that to some degree. I believe it is healthy and very satisfying to be creative and I have knitted, crocheted or sewn many gifts for family and friends over a lifetime.

I also enjoy blogging and so I thought to create a new one, highlighting a lot of those creations, mainly to remind myself of happy hours making and giving each one.

Currently I am working on making baby shawls and jackets for my grandchildren to use for their own children when the time is right... an heirloom gift or legacy if you will.

With being 71 years of age, I obviously don't know how long I will be able to continue doing this, so I am working on them now, either giving them directly to those old enough to keep them themselves, or to their mothers to keep until the time is right.

I hope you enjoy looking at my creations...

Keep clicking and stitching,

Glenys                    

 https://nanasclicksandstitches.blogspot.com/

"But by the grace of God, go I"

As you probably know, I suffer from a myriad of health issues from life threatening to annoying. Each day is a constant struggle to keep my home and look after Chris and myself and our little white cat, Xena.

Recently, I read an article about chronically ill bloggers who use the internet to feed their latent Munchausen's disease  The writer who obviously is not suffering an invisible chronic illness, concludes- falsely that we are feeding a desire for attention and sympathy.

This writer had no medical expertise and spoke with the confidence and freedom of a healthy person who knows nothing of the pain every day brings to us who aren't so blessed. It made me both angry and sad.

Anyone who manages to carry on a relatively "normal" life, sacrificing their comfort to serve and love those closest to them, know that the only thing we really desire is compassion. We rarely take delight in our symptoms, in fact the majority of us try very hard to appear as a healthy person in spite of being in pain and discomfort.

Goodness knows, we suffer so much with people judging us unkindly and this simply serves to push us further into depression and loneliness. Especially when our illness is invisible, like fibromyalgia.

Many of us chronically ill people are housebound for the most part, and therefore we feel a certain amount of loneliness and disjointment from society. We simply want to be respected and allowed to simply exist without the stigma of mental disease in the form of Munchausen's.

We bloggers of chronic illness do so because we know the feeling of disenfranchisement in a social sense. We are stripped of our right to live in peace and freedom from bullying ignorant people. 

Writing for those who suffer like we do helps us to reach out to people who would understand the psychological insulation and the sting of being misjudged and categorised as a malingering attention seeker. 

Whilst it is true that we have the LORD to love us unconditionally, it nevertheless hurts us that people are so cruel and instrumental in adding ridiculous labels to us that demoralise us even further.

Chronic illness and pain is a horrid  way to live and those who cast stones at us would do well to thank God that they aren't so afflicted. God has not chosen them to walk the lonely path of chronic illness and they also would do well to remember "but by the grace of God, go I" 

© Glenys Robyn Hicks

Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. 3 John 1:2

Grace-filled keyboard warriors

I  have  blogged  for over  twenty years  now.  As  a  chronically  ill,  mostly  house-bound woman,  it  is  a form  of witnessing and serving God that is achievable for me. And although I feel close to God in the writings and  I enjoy a sense of usefulness, there's often horrid comments behind the scenes which spoil it all...

These comments are  like hounds baying for blood if a post happens to be something readers disagree with. And, yes: it's usually taken out of context to prove their point. Sad thing is it's actually God's Word they are fighting over. Still, it's all good- as long as we remember for Whom we write. 

This is not limited to blogging comments, but social media in general. People are often so aggressive and needlessly rude. It's almost impossible to post anything without the drama of offending someone. Which isn't often the case at all.

I often wonder just what these keyboard warriors think when they spew hateful comments from their keyboard. Are they not aware that there's a person with feelings on the receiving end? or don't they care?  I believe it's the latter...

It's quite easy to insult or demean someone you can't see. It's akin to the pilots bombing the cities in war time- just release the bombs and high tail it out of return firing range. They don't deal with the death, destruction and carnage at ground level...

But  ultimately,  words  are  as damaging as those  bombs.  We  have  people who have  suicided over being bullied online. We have to stop and think before we write. Written or spoken words have the power to harm or uplift.

In light of this, I have culled my friends list on Face Book and also have reassessed and often left, those groups and pages that are rife with trolls who hurt each other with hurtful comments. 

Some of these groups were Christian groups where people spoke "in love". There's nothing loving about demeaning someone online under the guise of helping them avoid error. Let all be done in love. The love of Christ.

My hope  is that  keyboard warriors will  actually stop and think before they slam into someone.  There's a place for correction and  there's a  Way.  The Way.  Let's use our keyboard to bring the best out  of ourselves and to others.  In love. In humility. In Truth.

Let  us  use  our  keyboards  to  impart  hope,  strength  and  holiness as  unto  the  LORD.  May we  speak words of grace, seasoned with salt and may we  become  grace-filled keyboard warriors!

© Glenys Robyn Hicks


Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. Colossians 4:6