Blogger Highlight-SOLONGASICANBREATHE

Thank you for all the great feedback on the Blogger Highlight series, I’ve enjoyed meeting each blogger and sharing their site with you. This week we highlight the blog Solongasicanbreath. I’ve followed Marie for a short time but we connected straight away. She has ME which is a severe chronic illness and she graciously answered a question about the illness for me. Interestingly enough we have the same illness, ME and CFS are the same just different names. It sounds like CFS is more often used in America whereas the UK uses ME. I know the struggle and mine is not severe, I admire Marie’s outlook on life with the struggle she has.

SOLONGASICANBREATHE

In late 2011 ME – Myalgic Encephalomyelitis – entered my world after a viral infection and while I lost my full time job in Accounting, my hobbies (which included hot yoga, running with my local athletics club and horse riding), and everything that once defined me, I gained a swathe of space and time.

Since then, I’ve used this time to observe this odd world of ours, amend how I view the term “living” and dabble in writing and tree planting (my friends, husband and I have planted about 100 mainly native trees in our 3/4 acre garden).

I’m passionate about our environment and live as sustainably as I can. We grow a lot of our own vegetables while buying into consumerism as little as possible.

My poems, short stories and non-fiction can be found in the books Poems from Conflicted Hearts, Observant Observings, magazines and journals such as Slant, Caustic Frolic, ROPES, JuxtaProse, online resources Glossy News, Every Writer and newspapers Irish Examiner and Irish Independent.

From 2014 to 2021, I wrote a regular column for the magazine Athenry News and Views.

One very important post she wrote is about having ME its called Losing Myself. It’s a long read but worth every minute.

WHAT IS ME?

As per the CDC, ME is a serious and often long-lasting illness that keeps people from doing their usual activities.

It makes physical and mental exertion difficult.

Symptoms include trouble thinking, severe tiredness and other symptoms.

There is no known cause or cure. Care usually means treating the symptoms that most affect a person’s life.

HOW TO HELP PATIENTS WITH ME IN IRELAND?

There are many organisations available to patients and their carers.

Irish ME/CFS Association: https://irishmecfs.org/

The Irish ME Trust: https://www.imet.ie/

ME Advocates Ireland: https://meadvocatesireland.blogspot.com/

Patients with Severe ME remain bedridden and need help with basic activities including nutrition and hydration.

Questions I asked

M. You’ve published many articles, how did you get involved in writing for magazines?

M. Like everything in life, by accident! In early 2014 after having some poems I submit to an anthology published, the publisher of the anthology asked if I’d enough material for a solo poetry book, which I did. And after that book Observant Observings was published and some articles appeared in local media to promote it, the editor of a local magazine reached out to me and asked if I was interested in writing a regular column for them. I said why not! I wrote an article for every issue from late 2014 to 2021 when the magazine ceased trading due to the impacts of the pandemic. And while I was writing for them, I began sending off work elsewhere which too has been published. Then, in 2016, after I wrote a letter to the editor of our national newspaper, The Irish Independent, following our general election at the time, and pointing out the reasons for anger in the country, the editor of the paper reached out to me, asking if I’d follow up with a full length journalistic piece, and that was published under my own name, which gave me another feather in my cap! Life lesson: take calculated risks! Have confidence in your ability and challenge yourself!

M. How do you find joy in your day?

M. Like many people living with long term illness, and being as limited as I am due to my ME, I’ve had to adapt and re-learn what living means without having a job or social life or the hobbies I once had (which included hot yoga, running with a local athletic club and horse riding). It didn’t happen overnight. But the more I sat with myself, the more I began to look outward, to see the seasons change, the light change within a day, etc. That’s where I now find joy. Watching the seasons roll in and watching how nature and her creatures react to each change. At present I have a hooded crow who for the last 3 years has showed up at my kitchen window for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Joy can be found in the smallest of places, and you don’t even have to dip into your pocket to enjoy it!

Be sure to pull up a chair and read through Marie’s archives, you’ll leave with more knowledge than you came with.

Melinda

Looking for the Light