I am proud to say I am socially disabled. Even though I can be a chatterbox when someone calls or when emailing with people, I get allergic reactions to Facebook and Twitter. But I have to admit: 2012 was the year I gave in to Pinterest.
On one of the Christmas cards we received it said: ‘Let 2013 be a glorious year, or otherwise remember that you are neither a stray dog nor a victim of child labor in Thailand.’ I was amazed to read it. Is that something you send a person who has been ill for some years, let alone housebound? What if I was sending cards with these odd words to others? For instance to a dear friend who lost her father recently, let alone to the family of this Dutch M.E. patient Denise who died last Friday because of breast cancer that was discovered a little late?
I am sure the the card was sent with the best intentions and perhaps the sender meant nothing more than to suggest to count our blessings.
That is what you learn when the shit hits the fan. You sit down and give it a good cry, ignoring or repressing horrible things is of no use. No sooner than that you can try handling it. At least that is my experience. And when you do, you ‘put on your big girl panties and deal with it.’ This is a one liner that I do think is a wonderful phrase about how to keep going, if you can. I picked it up on the web and pinned it on one of my boards at Pinterest. Nope, I didn’t came up with it myself. That is what I like about Pinterest. I can sniff around and pick up all kinds of bits and pieces, as if I were a stray dog.
2012 has been kind to me. Apart from those two tragic deaths which did cast a painful shadow over it, I had some interesting highlights to be thankful for. In the last year I achieved things that were a first in years and made me happy. Of course this was only possible with the right balance, not forcing anything and keeping an eye on what was important for me.
So to my very dear readers – no matter whether you are either dealing with awful or happy things that are both part of life – I wish you all the best for the New Year. I hope it may be a happy and healthy one with some sparkling highlights.
And please feel free to share your thoughts, images and meaningful phrases with me on Pinterest. As long as it is not about stray dogs. As some of you might know: I am more of a crazy cat lady myself. Meowww.
You can find me on Pinterest here;
You can find the phrase ‘You put on your big girl panties and deal with it’ here;
Unfortunately I haven’t found any English information on the internet about M.E.-patient Denise who died last week. In Dutch you can find that here.
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This post is also available in: Dutch