Health haiku

Today is Day 6 of HAWMC and it is poetry day.  Haiku.  
                                you know     ~     5syllables/7syllables/5syllables

i used to write poetry when i was young, but Haiku was not my style.  my daughters once found
some of my poems, written when i was about 16 or so.  they found them hysterical!!  i admit, they were the ramblings of a young girl in love (or hate or whatever the emotion of the moment was!).

one was actually about my dead fish.  i went to a Beatlemania concert with my then boyfriend (now husband) and came home to find the fish on the floor.  he apparently jumped out of the bowl, landed on the air duct/heater, and i think the air conditioning froze him to death.  of course hours out of water probably didn't help either.  poor Socrates.

anyway,  i will try my hand at haiku. 

sleep, poke, read, pump, eat

poke, read, pump, eat, again and again

will it ever end?

diabetes is

a never ending battle

consuming my day

hope is what i have

today, i will live today

with hope for a cure

i sit at the park

counting carbs for the pigeons

what is wrong with me?

"can you eat that pie?"

and i ask "why? is it bad?

is it poisonous?"



and there you have it....my shot at Haiku.

does this look like the DOC??

today's post is an Ekphrasis Post. 

"Ekphrasis

One particular kind of visual description is also the oldest type of writing about art in the West. Called ekphrasis, it was created by the Greeks. The goal of this literary form is to make the reader envision the thing described as if it were physically present. In many cases, however, the subject never actually existed, making the ekphrastic description a demonstration of both the creative imagination and the skill of the writer. For most readers of famous Greek and Latin texts, it did not matter whether the subject was actual or imagined. The texts were studied to form habits of thinking and writing, not as art historical evidence"

so to do this we are to go to flickr.com/explore. The webpage automatically generates a random photo and we are supposed to look at the image… the color, composition, style, details, location. What feelings does this evoke in me? am i reminded of anything significant in my life? Can i imagine myself in the photo? Can i relate the image back to my health topic?

Below is the picture that popped onto the screen when I logged onto flickr.com/explore. 

bolts of cloth…depicts the DOC.  each one different and yet the same. like us.  type 1's, type 2's. old, young, we're all the same.  the hand.  reaching out. could be any one of us.  we are searching for something. friendship, understanding, a sense of belonging? the body is the heart of the the DOC. the heart is Diabetes.  it has no face, because diabetes has no face.  it could be anyone.  the person sitting on the bus next to us.  the small child being pushed on the swing at the park.  the mailman, or the girl ringing through your groceries.

together we are strong.  we lean on each other.  we hold each other up.  WE CAN DO THIS!!

I write because.....

I write about my health because I feel the need to share.  After growing up with diabetes, being the only one in my family with it, and not knowing another diabetic, I like to think that I may be helping someone else in the same situation. 

I find writing cathartic.  When I am feeling down,  my numbers aren't doing what i want them to do, I can vent.  I know that sometimes, letting things out, letting them go, makes me feel lighter.  Less weight to carry.

I write when good things happen.  I write when bad things happen.  I write knowing that no one judges me.  

I can be serious.  I can be funny (or at least I think i am!).  I can inform.  I can ask questions. 

Sometimes I have questions, or I'm worried about some test results. When I write about how I am feeling at that moment and someones comments, it always surprises me.  I guess because I forget that I am writing for the public.  And then I remember and hope that maybe, if someone else is going through the same thing, and the comment  helps me, then it will help them too.

I wonder who reads my blog.  Is it other diabetics?  Mostly.  But perhaps it's someone looking for information about Type 1.  If so, then I feel that I can teach/reach them.  If they have questions, I hope they feel that they would be able to send me a message, and I could help.  Just the other day, I received and email from a woman who stumbled across my blog while googling for information about my Doctor who passed away.  I wrote about his passing, and she contacted me.  Turns out she was also diagnosed with T1 by the same Dr. and she and her family are/were still his patients.  She didn't know how he had died, and found the information she was looking for in my blog.

If the Internet was around when I was first diagnosed, it would have made my acceptance of my disease so much easier.  I would have realized early on that there are others out there going through the same things I did.  Feeling the same way I did.  

It took me many years to come to terms with Diabetes.  I lived with it, yes.  I did my needles, tested my blood, but I never really took ownership.  Once I did, I stumbled onto the DOC.  It opened my eyes and I decided that I could write, and hopefully help people that same way the blogs I first read helped me.

So to those bloggers, I thank you.  And if I can help just one person out there in some small way, then I am doing something good.  

And if this is the first time you've read my blog, and I can help you better understand Diabetes, or help you in some way, please, please, let me know.  I would be more than happy to talk to you.

Cheers  =)