Image by limevelyn via Flickr
Day 11 - and the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge Prompt (#HAWMC) is: “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. What is working well in your community, healthcare, blogs, social media, or your work in particular? What do you like about it?”
YAY! I get to do another gratitude post! I know, I know, that prompt doesn’t say anything about gratitude, but what works best in the chronic illness community more than deserves a little gratitude.
There are actually quite a few things that work well (not healthcare, but the rest of it works reasonably well.) What I like the best though, is the community. The vast majority of the people in the chronic illness community are absolutely awesome.
There are some drama queens and mean people out there, just like everywhere; but the rest more than make up for those few. I’ve met some wonderful people in the community; like the local lady who drove out of her way to give me a ride to the local farmer’s market because I didn’t have a way to get there, and the man in another state who loaned me a router and a laptop when mine died (for nothing more than the cost of getting them shipped here.)
There’s also the woman who sent me $100 when I didn’t have money for groceries a few months ago, and the online friends who have been there for me when I was suicidal, the supportive friends who have listened to me gripe about the awful place when my job was more than I could handle, and the ones who have helped me figure out ways to ease my pain when I lost my insurance and access to prescriptions. There are the friends who post links to helpful articles and write about their own experience, the ones that have started support groups and websites for the chronically ill, and the ones who have sent me links to freelance opportunities or inspired blog posts.
There are so many people in the online community that have helped me when I needed them, and have helped others when they needed it as well. I am so grateful to have met all of you (and I hope you know who you are . . .)
I only wish I could be as good a friend to all of these people as they have been to me.
This post was written as part of NHBPM – 30 health posts in 30 days: http://bit.ly/vU0g9J
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Wendy, A touching post. You can find friends in many places including the internet. Love to read your blog. Happy Thanksgiving to you!
mo
Thanks mo – some of the best friends I’ve ever had are people I met on the internet, and many of them became r/l friends as well. Happy Thanksgiving to you as well.