"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get" - Forrest Gump. I would change the word "life" with "MS". For Jenn that would be more accurate. You don't know what is next (if anything). I would suggest that "life is like a steak. Here is why I say that.
Life is like a steak because:
You choose your cut.
You choose how to prepare your steak. To marinate, tenderize, add spices or nothing at all.
You pick the temperature and cook time. Rare, medium well, well or very well done. It's up to you.
If you over cook, under cook, over spice, under spice it that's your fault. You got to pick the meat, how to prepare and cook it. If you where unsure on how to do it you could do a simple internet check and come up with thousands of suggestions on how to do it.
MS is like a box of chocolates:
You don't know what you're going to get (if anything).
Like some days, months or years with MS....some chocolates are good the others suck!
Most of the time there is no "map" to choose what chocolate you want.
Each brand varies. Quality, quantity and types of chocolate. MS varies person to person.
I say this because when Jenn first went out of work and her health was continuing to slip downward with a few days of "better" health. Those days of "better" health where like a bite of steak. I savored them and we took full advantage of this time. This has been true throughout our 17 years of marriage. Through the ups and downs, challenges and victories we always savored the good times like a juicy steak.
As a passenger on the MS bus I have got to see how Jenn handles her MS challenges. My wife kicks butt. MS punches her in the face she sticks her chin out and yells "is that the best you got?" and proceeds to fight with everything she has. Her fight and toughness are incredible. Looking back to when she first started having real challenges I witnessed this incredible fight and drive.
Here are a few words and thoughts I have about Jenn and her MS fight:
She has MS. It will never own her.
Chooses fight over flight.
She may be bent but not broken.
Stands tall in the face of adversity.
She inspires others, but often does not realize it.
Fiercely independent.
Will never give up and never give in.
She doesn't like it but accepts there are things that she can't control with her MS.
Never sees herself as handicapped.
Always pushes her limits.
She rejects defeat.
Never takes times of better health for granted.
She brings a cannon to the knife fight.
I truly admire her fight and her ability to adapt to health changes from MS. To me it's stuff movies are made of. I have been encouraging her to blog about living with MS. Her humble answer was "why? my life isn't that exciting". I responded " It's to share what you have experienced, how you handled it and what tools you used".
Well, she is starting her blog. I will post her blog address on mine (once I figure out how to). We are both blogging rookies and will fumble around for a bit until we figure out how to do things. If you blog and have "how to" tips please share. :)
Next post will be "I'm home full time. Now what?"
Thanks for reading.
-Brent
Reject Defeat
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