I've been thinking about the idea of what helps a lot lately. Maybe it's because it's what I can actually do something about, versus the stuff I just have to deal with. Or maybe it's because it just makes me feel better and that's always good. I don't know why but for whatever reason, it's where my thoughts have been going lately.
I think that's why I was so drawn to this great visual list of things that give inner peace from an article in one of my favorite mags, new york magazine. The graphic illustrates the results of a survey they did about how new yorkers find inner peace. What I love is the idea of listing all the things that help anything, like finding inner peace or living with diabetes or work or getting older. Whatever. I like the exercise of making the list and I especially like the effort of making it well designed and pretty. Which means it's inspiring and appealing, which is exactly what it should be. I love the graphic illustrations they used to visualize their list plus I really like a lot of the list itself. Yes, I've been known to listen to loud music or have an occasional slice of pizza and I definitely like law and order for a little relaxation. But I'm not talking about inner peace here. Well I guess I'm not just talking about inner peace, because when I think about it, inner peace does factor in as one of the things that can really help. But so does walking the dogs. Or gardening. Or noticing the indescribable blue sky.
I'm talking about is making the what helps list a visual thing. A series of images. Or symbols. Or photos. I'm not sure how it should come together yet, but I like the assignment. It could be very fun. And after all, having fun is something that really helps too.
My son is extremely visual and we do everything in my house with the aid of a visual cue. Whether it is pictures of him brushing his teeth under the mirror in the bathroom, a little white board with the days events in stick figures drawn out, or paintings of things we do during choice time. I’ve noticed that with Sandis he relaxes so much if he can “see” what his choices are, and what it is he gets to do or can do. I’ve learned so much the benefit of pictures in the past year and how they can help day in day out with life.
Posted by: Sarah | February 16, 2007 at 07:43 AM
This post took me back 10 years, when I was hospitalzied with a presenting diagnosis of heartfailure. Fortunately it was an advserse reaction to Lantus, which I had just started It took several frightening days to figure this out, and when I was released with a clean bill of health I gratefullly contemplated all of the kind people at the hospital who had helped me.
I got some cardstock in various colors and made calling-card sized pices. On the front, I wrote the person's name in calligraphy. On the back, a brief description of their kindness. Example - Olga, one of my roommates, took off her cardiac monitor so she could come over to my bedside and sing to me in Russian as I lay there crying.
I decorated them with embossed doodling and had them laminated. I did 27 in all.
For the next few weeks, I took one each night and spent a couple of minutes in silent reflection.
Actually, I'd forgotten all about them until last summer when I was cleaning out a file. They are now safely tucked in a special box where they won't be lost again.
We all need a "what helps" list. I'm going to work on mine!
Posted by: Minnesota Nice | February 16, 2007 at 06:22 PM
Beautiful...your post and the comments...thank you for sharing your inspiration...it SO helps!!!...and I am on my own mission now to form my own collection. We cannot rid ourselves of the difficult, but we can dilute it daily with good things.
Posted by: Jayne | February 17, 2007 at 07:03 AM
I love your stories. Thank you for them. I love the story of Minnesota Nice's cards. And I'm happy you found them again. They sound amazing. And Sarah's story of her son. He gets the value of pictures more than we do. "The value of pictures". What a great title for what we're talking about. And Jayne, I so agree. We can dilute the difficult by seeing and celebrating the daily good. It's not always easy to do, but it helps to know that it's a choice that is always there.
Wow! Connecting with wonderful people who understand life with diabetes is definitely on my "what helps" list.
Posted by: birdie | February 18, 2007 at 09:32 AM
thanks for this post....and your blog. i am sending your link to someone special in my life. how about a (visual) flickr pool entitled "what helps"?
Posted by: glennis | February 27, 2007 at 08:06 AM
I love the idea of a "what helps" flickr pool. I wonder if there is any way to have link to our "diabetes made visible" pool. I'm thinking it could probably live with in the dmv pool and we could just tag those images with "what helps"... But I'm not sure, so I'll do some research, unless someone out there already knows how to do it in a snap...
Regardless, I think you're definitely on to something! Yeah.
Posted by: birdie | February 27, 2007 at 05:38 PM