So I have a friend who constantly amazes me with how determined she is. She is only a couple years younger than me and was recently diagnosed with a complicated form of Multiple Sclerosis. On top of that, she’s had every side effect to every medication in the book and if there could be a complication having to do with her MS (or sometimes NOT having to do with it), she seems to have it. And yet, she persists. She keeps going, day after day. She’s a feisty gal and determined as anything to continue living her life.

Her husband and friends are quite supportive but Kate would no doubt move mountains all on her own if she had to. She advocates for herself and is constantly posting about her journey on social media in an effort to not only keep her loved ones up to date with her daily life but to also educate others on what living with MS and autoimmune illness looks like.

Kate and I have known each other since we were pretty young kids but have stayed in touch through the years primarily through social media outlets like Facebook. Katie lives in Louisiana and I lived in California until about 5 years ago when I moved back to upstate NY.

Katie and I started to chat via text and then on the phone even before her MS diagnosis when she was struggling with migraines and a severe tremor in her body. I was going through my own health challenges at the time and sometimes it was nice to have someone who I didn’t have to sugarcoat things with. Someone I could be real with and say, “yeah, I look like my face is about to explode and I have linebacker arms. I haven’t been able to sleep lying flat for 6 months and I can’t breathe if I squat or bend over.” She would just listen to me and tell me how badass we both were and I would echo those sentiments and then we would usually finish our conversation of cursing like sailors.

See Katie is one of those rare people I can REALLY let my hair down around and JUST BE ME!! And sometimes “being me” means I’m having a bad day. And I’ve learned that often a bad day is just a bad day. You need to feel it, acknowledge it, maybe even revel in your pain a little and then go to bed. Start fresh tomorrow.

There is a saying that I generally love “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Well sometimes, I’m too tired, or I hurt too much, or I just don’t feel like it. So you know what. It’s also ok to just stack your lemons. Stacked lemons in a bowl make a pretty centerpiece. Sometimes you don’t have to go the extra mile. You can just do the bare minimum and it’s enough. Because we’re all allowed to have bad days and to stack our lemons. Even perfectly healthy people have bad days, and you know what, it’s all GOOD. It’s how you handle the next day and the one after that. The good days will come. They always do, but bad days are normal, they’re not especially fun, but they build character and in the end, they make us stronger people. So take the GOOD with the BAD and remember it’s ok to just stack those lemons.

I’ll admit, I’ve been in a bit of a slump lately and writing didn’t seem to be coming very easily to me. It wasn’t that I didn’t have anything to say, but like Springtime itself, I guess I was feeling a bit stifled and gloomy. But today was a nice day and not only am I back with my furry friends, (I am cat sitting for a friend while she and her husband take a few trips this spring) but the past few days I have had LOTS of my chubby bunny sightings!! I’ll get back to the bunny in a bit.

But see I was not brought up with pets really, (save a goldfish named Darla who lived an unusually long life of 9 years) as many members of my family suffered from allergies that prevented us from having furry friends in our home. But I have always had a love and appreciation for the special bond humans and animals can forge. So I have found quite a lot of joy in being around the kitty cats lately. They are quite full of love and can tell when you want company and when maybe you just need some space. Animals are truly so smart and perceptive that way.

My Aunt Sandy had a dog named Herman who had the most compassionate soul I’ve ever come in contact with. He was by my side every step of the way as I recovered from my car accident at their house in Orange County. He would fearlessly guard me while I stayed in their downstairs guest room, walking me to and from the bathroom each night. Herman went from being a dog who didn’t know how to enter a house comfortably when Aunt Sandy got him because he was so emotionally scarred from his previous owners to a dog who would do a slow, tantric prance around a fake potted plant my aunt kept in her home especially for him. He would zen out and let the leaves of the plant stroke his fur and you could see that he was truly happy in that moment. I loved Herman. We had a bond. We had both been through dark days and come through to the light. Been granted second chances and we were thankful for the little things we both had. He saw me at my worst and I like to think I saw him at his best. He’s been gone a few years now, but I still think of him fondly and miss him often. The sweet, wondrous soul he was.

My good friend Sandy recently wrote a beautiful Facebook post about her cat George. Sandy is someone I frequently mention in my blog posts because she’s just AWESOME!! But she’s also a breast cancer survivor and was commenting on how her cat George, is actually her husband Ken’s cat & came along with Ken when they began their relationship together. Sandy admitted that she is ‘not necessarily a cat person’, but she “is a George person”. George has supported Sandy through her cancer battle and recovery and now through her reconstruction, he dutifully sits with a watchful eye and warm snuggle in that way animals let us know they “have our backs”.

On a sillier note, I can remember my best friend Kym telling me she knew it was time for her to take a vacation from work when she had started to feel like her kitties, Rosie and Noah were ganging up on her. Now I’ve met both of them, & they do have very humanistic traits and I think they are definitely smart enough to know what you’re saying to them in certain tones of voices. And they can certainly be a bit cliquey in the right circumstance, but as far as felines go, I don’t truly believe the kitty cats were in cahoots against Kym. So I told her I supported her 100% as she had been working her ass off (she runs a design business out of her home office) and we had a good laugh about it later when she came back from her trip much less stressed. The kitties were very glad to have her return home of course too!!

My friend Kate just found out her dog Ryker has cancer and Ryker is like a child to Kate. I can only imagine the stress and emotional/financial burden something like that can cause. Animals are family members in so many ways and it’s not an option to not care for them, but there are often not the same resources for them that there are for people and a diagnosis like what Kate and Ryker are facing can just be devastating. I’m sending them both prayers and lots of love and hugs.

On my final note, I do believe that Spring is really here because there is a REAL rabbit warren behind our shed. I have been watching those rabbits burrow and make a home now for months. They stand at attention like Palace guards on either side of our shed some days for hours and now one of them is turning the most glorious shade of red. I’m not sure if one had babies and is just tending to those, which is why we don’t see her as often, but regardless they look happy and quite plump. I call my red friend “Chubby Bunny” and look forward to seeing him every day.

Animals can be such a balm to the soul that we can’t even begin to understand. The effects animals have on people in stressful situations, people with emotional complexities such as autism and people recovering from trauma are just amazing. I can see why. Allergies permitting, find a furry friend today and love on it. Even if it’s just for a few your hours at your local animal shelter. Or take your neighbor’s dog for a walk. It will do you BOTH a WORLD of GOOD.