As I begin sharing my thoughts here, I'm pondering the multiple aspects of life that I want to share: marriage, motherhood, my walk with Christ, health, relationships.... well, you get the idea. While I've always enjoyed vibrant colors (probably more than is normal) such as those found in rainbows and autumn forests and kaleidoscopes and tie-dyed fabrics, it didn't occur to me until a few weeks ago that it would be beneficial to me, as well as those depending on me, to color code my life.
In this new-fangled technological age, a brilliant person invented, among many other useful things, the smart phone. How I survived 39 years without my BlackBerry is now and will forever remain a mystery to me. See, I have this symptom that affects my mental faculties in the most amusing, embarrassing and impractical ways. You may be familiar with similar phenomena more commonly known as "brain farts" or "senior/blond moments", maybe even "pregnancy brain". My fellow fibromyalgia sufferers know it best and often as "fibro fog", and at times it affects me in the most inopportune ways imaginable.
For example, because I know you're now curious enough to want to understand, a few weeks ago there was a particular upcoming date that every time I thought of it or looked at my calendar, I just *knew* I had something to do on that day. But there was absolutely nothing listed for the day in my BlackBerry calendar other than my weekly reminder to watch "Grey's Anatomy". (Yes, I have to set reminders to watch TV. It goes back to "fibro fog" and my nearly addictive reliance on my BlackBerry.)
My mother, the owner of the world's sharpest living memory, had no idea why I had such a strong feeling of having an appointment that day. My husband, bless him, the world's shortest living memory, had no idea. Neither of my sons had a clue either, but that's normal.
At some point in the week, I realized the date - Thursday, November 11 - was Veteran's Day so I tried to convince myself I was merely remembering Veteran's Day and that I really had no appointment and wasn't going to miss out on anything important.
Fast forward to 2:30am on the Tuesday morning following the 11th when, as i was falling asleep it hit me. I had been to the doctor on Monday, November 8, when the nurse scheduled me for an appointment for a mammogram and ultrasound for ~ yep, you guessed it ~ November 11.
When your mind is incapable of remembering you're worried because you found a lump in your breast, went to the doctor to have it checked, and was scheduled for a mammogram and ultrasound only 3 days later, you MIGHT have "fibro fog". Turns out the lump was nothing to worry about, so I suppose it's good that I forgot to worry about it.
- Red, the color of blood, is for medical appointments~ for myself, my sons, my husband, my parents, tests, procedures, doctor visits, etc..
- Green, the color of money, is for financial obligations~ payment due dates, upcoming bills (like the once or twice a year variety), etc.
- Blue, the color of facebook, is for social obligations~ lunch appointments with friends, family dinners, reunions, etc.
- And purple, the final option considering my BlackBerry settings, and incidentally the color of fibromyalgia awareness, is for internet~ (where my fibro-friends live)~ reminders to check on flaring friends or to enter sweepstakes or take surveys, follow-up on prayer requests, and most recently to blog.
So now that I have this all figured out - ahem, it's my blog, no bubble bursting allowed! - I thought it might be helpful in combating my memory and fibro fogginess if I carry my color codes over to my blog where possible. Red~ health related. Green~ well I won't be giving financial advice, so I'm not sure what I'll do yet with green. Blue~ relationship-related posts. Purple~ for sharing great sites, blogs or deals... whatever I find on the internet that is worthy of sharing.
And now that it's taken me till nearly 5am to remember what I wanted to share and to actually type it out, I bid you good night. Perhaps the fog will lift tomorrow, ahem~ later today, so that I can share something of more importance. What was that one thing I was thinking of before....? Something about colors, no.. color-coding...? No, wait. It was leaves~ something about leaves... <let me go back and search through what I've typed in search of that um, whatever it is I was talking about looking for> ... Oh yes, I want to share about the parallels between my spiritual life and leaves ~ and how the spiritual autumn is a time of dying to self in order to live for Him! That was it!
