Friday, August 12, 2011

Blue Candles And Standing The Storm.


Blue candles are lighting up facebook, two more young adults taken too soon, and another is in the hospital with DKA - And everyone I know in the Diabetes On-line community is feeling the affects of losing family members we've never met.
And it sucks.
Losing loved ones we know or don't know, to a disease that we share is incredibly scary.
It makes you wonder about your future, your past, and your life in real time. It makes you second guess how your handling your life, and your life with diabetes.


It can stop you in your tracks and makes you feel that you can't move past the grief.
It makes you angry and mad and you wonder how you're going to get through it.
What I've learned from losing those I've love to diabetes is this:
YOU HAVE TO KEEP GOING, EVEN WHEN YOU THINK YOU CAN'T.
You have to keep living and working and trying and doing - Because now your not just living, working, trying & doing for you - You're doing it for those who no longer can.
And by doing so, you are honoring their memory each and every day.
And you fight for a cure even harder because your diabetes fight has now become even more personal and has reached an entirely different level.
Crying is OK and encouraged, being sad is expected, and depression and diabetes go hand in hand.
So reach out to your family and friends - Reach out to a professional, but reach out to somebody - And tell them how you're feeling.
And if you see a family or friend in need of help reach out to them - We are in this together.
In the DOC we cry together, laugh together, and are there for one another regardless of geography or demographics.

When one of us needs to be carried, we lift them up and hoist them on our shoulders.
And in times of flicking bluecandles, many need to be carried, and we lean on one another - So that we can stand the storm together.

8 comments:

Meagan said...

Beautifully said. Time to value the DOC even more than we usually do. ((Hugs))

Holly said...

We DO have to keep going. <3 Holly

Jess said...

beautiful post, kelly. well said, my friend. we can do this, even when it feels like we can't.

Penny said...

Beautifully said Kel. We keep moving forward, sometimes one minute at a time, an hour at a time, a day at a a time. We live so we can remember those we lost.

Scott K. Johnson said...

Great post Kel. Thank you.

Bennet said...

Love Ya / Mean It

Hallie Addington said...

This is beautiful. I can hardly see thru the tears to write this! This week it got to me. I try not to go there... but sometimes.... It's scary. And that would an understatement of enormous proportions! But I am so thankful to walk this road with all of the DOC. Without all of you, I'd be lost!

Mike Hoskins said...

Thanks for this, Kelly. Beautifully written, as always, and so truly to the point. Through community these things are both amplified but also easier to shoulder together. Great post, my friend. Best you way as you make your way to Toronto.