Oh, what a great feeling it is when you really accomplish something – despite all the challenges and setbacks that chronic illness can bring! It’s a remarkable boost, even if you’re really spent afterward, to be able to look back at the pitfalls and say, “In spite of all that, I made it!”

I suppose marathoners feel much the same way – pushing through the “wall” of fatigue to get to the finish line, triumphant.

Right now, I feel really happy that I’ve finished the manuscript to a new book! Oh, my, I’m very tired. But meeting the challenge despite illnesses, infections, and “life intervening” gives me good heart.

Serious chronic illnesses usually don’t allow us to jump from one thing to another, finishing this and that project and rocketing ahead to the next. I know that I’m going to need lots of time to recover before diving into something else, too.

But that moment of accomplishment is a very valid moment of joy. One to be cherished and appreciated. For it’s these types of moments that help us power through the other, more difficult times, when the end is unknowable and perhaps elusive. Or when, as with chronic illness, when there is no end, but rather an ongoing battle.

Yes, the times when we can really accomplish something help us through all the rest of life with lupus or any serious illness or pain. Sort of like intangible trophies, shining light upon us when much else is very dark.

Peace,

Maureen