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Well I have finally given in and agreed to spend the day in bed.  It is something I actively avoid like the plague as it reminds me of how bad my health can get sometimes and I personally believe – rightly or wrongly depending on which specialist you listen too – that fighting my CFIDS by pushing through the fatigue is more advisable than giving into my body’s desire for rest.

So, armed with a good book to read – ‘The Trouble with Alex ( A Child too Damaged)’ by Melanie Allen, for when I can muster up enough energy to actually hold something as immensely heavy as a paperback book (Sarcasm I know but hey it helps me through) plus my Netflix subscription and a DVD or three, I am ensconced in my bed all set for a lazy day.

The first DVD of choice this morning was ‘Fry’s Planet Word’ in which Stephen Fry looks at language.

As a writer and blogger I love language and so I was really keen on seeing this DVD and it is one I have been ‘stock piling’ for just such an inevitable occasion of having time to spare and no energy to go with it.

I have to tell you, even the opening statement of this DVD fascinated me and encouraged me greatly.

“Hello.  You know just saying that one word is one of the most complex and extraordinary operations we know.  70 muscles and half a billion brain cells go into it.”

Isn’t that staggering!  LOL here I am fatigued and frankly a little fed up, hardly able to move a single muscle without pain or extreme effort and just by saying hello I can move 70 muscles!

I am so tempted to spend the morning saying ‘Hello’ to TJ my dog, and faithful companion, one hundred times.  Just so next time I see my physiotherapist I can proudly (if not a little deceptively) announce that I had moved 7,000 muscles in one morning alone.

The fact that it was the same 70 muscles one hundred times and them all being in my jaw/head being something that I might neglect to mention 🙂

But what is more encouraging to me, however, is the fact that despite the struggles that I, and indeed many of us face, with regard to our mental health I can still cause half a billion of my brain cells to function properly and in so doing say “hello”!

Isn’t that wonderful?  And yes I realize that this, in some ways, qualifies me as an eternal optimist.

(Oh, and by the way.  It occurs to me that if someone ever claims to be an ‘eternal pessimist’ you might want to just point out to them that even acknowledging that there is such a thing as ‘eternity’ is ‘optimistic’ in itself and thus perhaps they aren’t as pessimistic as they might believe. LOL)

But then can’t we all benefit from looking at and seeing things a little differently sometimes?

Life is beautiful, wonderful, inspirational, precious and amazing in so many different ways and no matter how much richness and color our mental health may rob from our perception of life sometimes there is one simple basic truth that I guarantee you.

The life of your family, your friends, your neighbors and those around you would have less richness and less color if you weren’t a part of it.

Sometimes that is hard for us to see that truth and yes, I have to be honest here  since it has taken me hours to even type this,  I struggle to see that myself sometimes. But how about today we all dare to think outside the box?

Even the box our poor mental health tries to confine us too?

How about today we reach out, from the things that seek to confine us and suppress or even oppress us and dare to be free!  Free to reach out and say “Hello world, I am still here and still fighting!” and to do so by bringing some magic into our own lives and the lives of those around us.