Invisible #1 © 2013 Jane Waterman
Creativity

Wordless Wednesday #1

I’m taking part in WEGO Health’s Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge Day 3 #HAWMC – Wordless Wednesday #1 – Post a picture that symbolizes your condition and your experiences.

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Angel #2 © 2012 Jane Waterman
Creativity

Dreams, Art and Invisible Illness

Day 24 – My own prompt: What dreams and goals have emerged for you as a consequence of being ill? “When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

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Depression #1 © 2011 Jane Waterman
Creativity

Art and Depression – When I Can’t Talk About It

There have been many books, articles and even papers in refereed journals written to explore the linkages between creativity and mental illnesses such as depression, bipolar and schizophrenia. I have read convincing arguments for both weak and strong links between creativity and mental illness. I personally believe there is a

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Stained Glass © 2010 Jane Waterman
Creativity

Care Package for People with Sjogren’s and Depression

Day 9 – Community Care Package. Create the perfect care package for your members or fellow patients. Note: A Sjoggie is a person with Sjogren’s syndrome. A care package is all about comforting. Happily, there are a lot of things on this list that will comfort both people with depression

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Quanta #1 © 2012 Jane Waterman
Invisible illness advocacy

30 Things About My Invisible Illness You May Not Know

This is part of my contribution to Invisible Illness Week. What’s that you ask? Click on the graphic at the end of this entry to learn more! 1. The illness I live with is: A wily combination of things, but it appears that Sjogren’s syndrome and fibromyalgia are a very

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After Munch #8 © 2012 Jane Waterman
Interior life

Silent House

I will try to connect All the pieces you left I will carry it on And let you forget I’ll remember the years When your mind was still clear All the flickering lights Filled up this silent house From Silent House (Finn, Maines, Robison, Maguire) I love the song ‘Silent

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Purple Heart © 2012 Jane Waterman
Creativity

Digital Art: Our Stories

Next month I am taking part in an exciting digital art expo here in the Cowichan Valley with about 12 other artists. If you’ve known me for some time, you’ll know that various physical and mental health challenges have placed a lot of limitations on my life. Extreme fatigue is

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Shame © 2012 Jane Waterman
Living with invisible illness

Shame

I come to writing today wrung out, hollowed, disappointed, ashamed. I can forgive myself the days that lapsed since my last entry. I sank into the recesses of a cave, and there I went through the motions of life in the grip of a depression so strange I can not

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Conflagration © 2012 Jane Waterman
Creativity

Compassion for my Younger Self #2

These are not the colours of my sadness and pain. The colours of the emotions I feel for the younger self I wrote about yesterday. Her sorrows are deep purples and blues, stretching into long twilights, the one searching the stars for one that might assuage her loneliness. Her longings

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The Experience of Pain © 2012 Jane Waterman
Living with invisible illness

The Experience of Pain

During a discussion of pain and pain management with a good online friend (you can see his remarkable photography here), my friend Michael made the remark that the efforts of those who cope with chronic pain are heroic. It’s certainly not a typical way to view ourselves. My frequent experience

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