Wednesday, March 16, 2011

A Story Of What Does MS Egual To Shannon

Dumas will be having their MS Walk Saturday, April 30 in Dumas. 
As we get people's stories we will share them with you here on the HPO.


The National Multiple Sclerosis Society is asking us to tell what MS equals to us.  I've been thinking about this for a good week. 

What does MS equal to me? 

I know one thing it absolutely does NOT equal to me and that is "Mom".  As I said last year, Mom was much more than the sum of anything MS threw at her or tried to restrict her to.  I started by thinking about all the people in my life who are directly impacted by MS and when I think about all these people who are impacted by MS, there are two words that keep coming back to me. 

So, for me:

It equals strength you never knew you had and strength you never imagined you would need.  It equals strength of the bonds of love and family.  It equals strength in a reassuring smile and a simple, "I can do it myself."  It equals grace.  Unrelenting grace in the face of tremendous turmoil, hurt and frustration.  MS equals grace in those same bonds of love and of family.  Together, strength and grace pretty accurately describe every person I've come in contact with who is impacted by MS - be it the person with MS or the people who adore them.  With strength and grace comes this level of compassion and determination that is unparalleled by most every other person.  So while MS equals a million different things to me - yes, some are negative and selfish; the overriding answer to this equation has to be something positive.  Because anything short of that means that MS defined each of us and I refuse to allow that to to be the answer.

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