*taps mic* Is this thing still on?
Hi, everyone! I bet none of you thought you’d see this blog — or me writing on this blog — again but… surprise!
As those of you who are still following me on social media might’ve noticed, I’ve been slowly pulling away from social media for the last year or so. I did say that I would at some point (and some of you may remember what needed to happen for me to do so) and the time has come. I’m not giving it up completely because most people are still allergic to emails or even text messages and social media seems like the best place to let y’all know I’m still alive. And now I’m adding this blog back in the mix of ways of letting y’all know how I’m doing.
A couple of months ago I felt the tug to return to this particular blog. I talked to my bestie about it and gave myself a December deadline to decide. And, as you can see, I decided to return. I had unlisted this and my other blog for a while due to AI scraping of blogs (and I still don’t give permission to anyone or anything to use any of my posts to train anything AI) but the tug was too strong to return. That and I had a few people message me about past posts they wanted to re-read so… here y’all go!
A lot has happened in the last two plus years since I last updated this blog.
On the health front: I’ve been in remission from secondary adrenal insufficiency since the last post. It took a year and a half for my body to get back to my “base.” It was a tough time with my body re-learning what it did and didn’t tolerate, my hormones going crazy (I was on steroids for three plus years), and my autoimmune issues trying to cope with it all. In that time I was also unofficial diagnosed with POTS. My cardiologist didn’t have the equipment to formally test me but I’ve had all the symptoms for years so he added me to his list of his “POTS girlies” patients and still see him for it. I have my off days but I’m learning my triggers for POTS and the other autoimmune issues that were finally diagnosed so it’s all optimism right now.
On the vocation front: I “discerned out” of becoming consecrated virgin. I’m glad I discerned it because I learned a lot about myself, my faith (which I’ll get into in a future post), what I did and did not want, and I understood why I had to discern it. No regrets whatsoever and I pray for those still discerning it. It’s a such a beautiful and often misunderstood vocation that I was ultimately not called to. I’m very happy where I ended up. I’ve chosen to keep this part of my life off social media for reasons that surprise no one who knows me well. Just know that I’m very happy and feel incredibly blessed. I feel like I’m right where God wants me with the people He wanted me to have in my life. There’s a lot of love and I’m grateful for it.
As weird as it may sound, I’m in love with where I am in my life right now. My health stinks most of the time but I’ve learned to live with it. The winter months are typically better for me than summer so here’s hoping the trend continues and I get a little break from the flare ups.
I love my friends who are basically family at this point. It’s crazy but wonderful to think about how I’ve known some of them for over two decades now.
I’ve healed or am still healing wounds that I had from childhood. I have a better relationship with family members I once had problems with. I learned how to set and maintain healthy boundaries and that’s helped maintain peace in all my relationships.
While I no longer work, I still occasionally write here and there. Ellipsus is my new best friend for these specific things that I’m writing, most under a pen name and currently mostly for myself and trusted beta readers.
I’m grateful for the journey that has gotten me to where I am — with the people who I share this beautiful life I live — and I thank God for every bit of it. The good. The bad. The difficult. The humbling. The wonderful. The surprising. All of it.
Anyway, this was just a mini life update to return to the blogging world. I didn’t touch on faith matters because that’s going to cover the two hardest years of my life as a Catholic and that’s a long post I need to write. And, yes, if I’ll be posting about my stream-free year at some point. I started writing a couple of weeks ago but I’m waiting until we’re closer to the end of the year to post it because I want to see where it ends (how many CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays I ended up using).
I have no set schedule. I’ll just update as I feel like sharing something and don’t want to spend too much on social media. Which is now most of the time.
Anyway, I hope you’ve all been well!
As always, thank you for reading and God bless!
