A Few of My Favorite Things
One of the songs that always evokes a sense of the joy of winter holiday season for me is My Favorite Things sung by Julie Andrews in 1965 in the film version of “The Sound of Music.” I’m sure you recognize the opening stanza of the song:
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things
And then there is the sharp contrast of chorus which acknowledges that things do not always go as we would wish:
When the dog bites, when the bee stings
When I’m feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad
As 2024 winds to a close I decided to share some of my favorite resources to better equip you to manage your fibromyalgia and chronic illness well in the coming new year.
You’ve probably seen me mention these resources before but sometimes it’s nice to list them again and have the links all in one place for easy reference. So, here we go:
My favorite newsletter is from December, 2020, Could One Conversation Change Your Life? I talk about the conversations that led to me becoming a health coach and invite you to consider adding a health coach like me to your healthcare team. Several people told me that reading the essay in THIS NEWSLETTER was a game changer for the way they approach their health.
One of my favorite poems is Everything is Waiting for You by David Whyte. I discovered this poem many years ago during a time of unsettling transition in my life and found it helped me organize my thoughts in a more productive fashion rather than being stuck in worry and ruminations. Here is the poem, let me know if it speaks to you as well:
Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and to invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.
My favorite substack community is the Isolation Journals facilitated by Suleika Jaouad. She is the best selling author of the book. Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted that is described on her website. Her uplifting and inspiring book traces her searing journey of being diagnosed with leukemia in her early twenties through her recovery and remission.
Unfortunately, Suleika’s nearly 10 years of remission ended a few years ago with the return of active leukemia. Again, she is in active treatment of her cancer and probably will be for the rest of her life.
The theme of having our lives interrupted and irrevocably changed by chronic illness is a theme that resonates with many of us. The Isolation Journals is a vibrant online community comprised of thousands of participants who are dealing with intractable chronic conditions of many varieties. The stories shared of meeting heartbreaking loss and diminishment with courage and creativity never fails to help me “not feel so bad,” as the line in the song intones.
My favorite website for research related to fibromyalgia is HealthRising.org which is led by Cort Johnson, a tireless patient advocate who himself suffers from ME/CFS-chronic fatigue syndrome. The website shares the latest research, treatment and advocacy news with the goal of eradicating ME/CFS and FM-fibromyalgia and also addresses issues related to long Covid. Whenever I am discouraged by the scarcity of effective treatments for ME/CFS and fibromyalgia I am heartened to read of the latest efforts of researchers to understand these diseases and to develop comprehensive treatment guides.
The Health Rising Website is also where I follow the work of my favorite pain researcher Dr. Daniel Clauw. Dr. Clauw is a professor of anesthesiology, internal medicine/rheumatology and psychiatry at the University of Michigan’s Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center. He has a deep and empathic commitment to the clinical care and research into chronic pain conditions including fibromyalgia. He is my go-to expert for how the central nervous system contributes to chronic pain states. This information has become especially important to me as I am in the midst of learning to manage chronic lower back pain in addition to my everyday fibromyalgia symptoms.
Here is the link to a recent discussion he had with Dr. Andrea Chapman of Swing Care on current research and treatment for fibromyalgia.
Finally, I want to share my favorite audio file of my daughter Michelle Dahlenburg reading a portion of my book Living Your BEST Life with Fibromyalgia: A Compassionate Approach to Reclaim Your Health and Reimagine Your Purpose HERE.
Michelle said that as she was doing the narration of my book she imagined sending healing energy through her voice to the listeners of the book. I love that so much!
I hope you will consider purchasing my book as a holiday gift for yourself or for someone you know that struggles with chronic illness. You can purchase the book HERE.
A dear friend of mine, Connie Hemmer, sent me an email today, she wrote:
“I’m back to reading your book…I was ambushed by a murder mystery that got me off track! I can hear your voice as I read, and wish we were across the table at Starbucks visiting!”
I wish we were too Connie! Several people have told me that reading my book is indeed like sitting down with me to have a chat over a cup of tea. If you read the book and found it helpful I would love for you to leave a five star review on Amazon. It helps so much to keep the book visible to potential readers.
Well, friends, there are my half dozen favorite resources to take into 2025. Now, what are your favorite things? Consider making a list and posting it where you can see it so it’s there to help you not “feel so bad” when the “dog bites” or “the bee stings.”
As always, when you are ready to talk about whether or not we would be a good match to work together to help you take charge of your health. I am here for you. It’s easy to schedule a free consultation HERE.
Wishing you a lovely holiday season and a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
