Beauty

Growing up in the Midwest I loved everything that spring represented. Spring represented rebirth and new life! Everywhere you looked something was coming alive! Flowers of hundreds of colors could be seen everywhere you looked. The sky was so blue that you could swear you had never seen that shade of blue before. The birds started to emerge and surrounded us with their beautiful songs from sun up to sun down. Trees were budding and soon you would hear the rustling of the leaves as the spring breeze blew in. The smells were sweet and vibrant and triggered images of fresh fruit and children laughing and running barefoot through the fields! Life emerged from every corner. Doors were opening. Windows were being cracked for the first time in months and in came the spring breeze and out blew the quietness of winter. The darkness of winter would soon be left behind and the newness of the world would be seen by everyone!

I find it very fitting that May is National Lupus Awareness Month. It is the heart of spring and in the newness emerges new hope in every Lupus patient and floods the world. It is time to see the beauty in everything and have hope that this is the year where we will be reborn again and a cure will be found! Hope is around every corner and the beauty of Spring fills us again. When I think of all of us who suffer from the mysterious disease I close my eyes and see thousands of us standing in a field and each of us shines with a different color. It is not ugly and it is not scary............it is beautiful and we are beautiful! Our scars on our faces, swelling of joints and the inability to move is left behind and we emerge to greet the spring with wonder and joy! In this field we all have billowing hair that has not been ravaged by chemo and it blows with the sweet breeze of spring! We rustle just like trees that are coming back to life. We bask in the warmth of the sun and for once we are not afraid!

Just like the flowers in the field each Lupus patient is different and the disease ravages our body in its own way. Even though we are each affected differently it is time to stand together as one! Our voices need to be heard and we need to remember to inspire everyone we meet. With inspiration awareness is born. Awareness and inspiration are the birth places for innovation, new testing and one day a cure! Today close your eyes and put yourself in that beautiful field and gently hold the hand of the Lupus patient standing next to you. Raise your heart and your voice and lets make a stand..................we will be heard and we will not be forgotten!