On Tuesday I was out at work. My work is doing market research surveys, and I go from door to door, seeing if I can get someone to be a respondent for my survey. I enjoy this job and the people that I meet and it is something that I can do given the limitations imposed by my various chronic illnesses. It was a typical Irish autumn day, sunny, warm, cold, rainy, windy and hailstones. Because I have been doing this job for over a year now, I was prepared. Waterproof shoes (that are breathable), waxed hat with visor, wind and waterproof coat that is warm too. Fully prepared for everything. As a result, I didn’t care what nature threw at me, I was protected. I didn’t mind.

The benefit of this preparation was that I was able to stop and enjoy the rainbows as they arrived. It was a day of rainbows, I was only able to capture a few of them, but they made the day so enjoyable. Maybe I am very childish, but I really think that they are cool.

I had just knocked on the door of another house, with no answer, and I looked at the sky over the house. It was dark and ominous. I could feel the air temperature drop, and hailstones fell with a passion. I took shelter. As the hail shower dissipated, the following scene appeared.

I couldn’t help but think that in every dark cloud there is a bright point. If you look at this picture you can see that the sky is mainly bright, with a very dark cloud in the distance. This is like my life with chronic illness. I see the darkness in my life, it is with me every day. However, there is also light, and joy. I choose to look at the top part of the picture of my life, and only see the joy, to see the light.

You can also see in that dark cloud, a pocket of light. Again, I choose to see this as the positive things that come with my illness. The ability to re-assess my life and focus on the important things. Things like love, family and friendship. My illnesses have also pushed me to write this blog, and in this, I have found a love of writing, and of sharing my story.

Coming back to the beginning of this post, and the preparations that I did (shoes, hat and coat) for my work, I did have a point that I wanted to say. I also am preparing for the bad days of MS and chronic headache. There are things that I am doing now, and thinking about now, that will, I hope, make the transition much easier. I will be prepared. Somethings will surprise me, I am sure, but that is part of the roller coaster of life. Life would be boring otherwise.