The Spinning Plates

First; My sincere apologies for being absent for I think two weeks. My ALS fatigue got really bad. My typing skills have gotten so bad that my grand daughter Lynette is typing for me. Yes I know i need Dragon and I know what it is but i need help and i keep asking and nobody helps: such is life.

Second; I don't know when i will be able to post again but I am going to shoot for once a week. The days of Gene Chapman posting to my blog once a day, have passed.

Third; My daughter and four of my grand kids are down from Pennsylvania are kickin' butt, takin' names, and solving problems. My "honey-do list" is backed up for years. Also, the refrigerator died and Sharon had to run and get a new one last week.

Last but not Least; I go for an EKG on Thursday to establish a baseline for the experimental pseudo bulbor drug, the false emotions are becoming a problem.

Now onto the point of Today's blog; I realized this morning while Sharon was getting ready for work how hard these past few months have been for her. It made me come up with a mental image that i am going to try to communicate with you and I am going to start out with two images; one is a plate spinner, you know, a person that spins plates on wooden sticks or dowels and the second one is a neutral gray and empty room.

Close your eyes, think of my wife or someone that is very close to you is standing in this room. Next, put that person on a unicycle (a one wheeled bicycle with a seat and pedals). The person you have imagined here is struggling a little staying balanced because they're not used to this unicycle. Now imagine this person on the unicycle spinning a place on a stick. Imagine if you will that this person has over 100 spinning plates in their hand and they're using the other hand to keep all of those plates spinning. This is what my wife, Sharon, has been doing since January 23rd, 2010, when we got the diagnosis of ALS. If you can consider even taking the place of this person you can fully imagine, the words that might describe how you feel; frustrated, angry, confused, overwhelmed, irritated, etc. It horrified me to even think that my dear wife who I have been married to for 29 years next month had endured days of this dilemma, let alone months.

The reason I came up with this image was to convey a truth to my wife and I: "If everything is thrown at you, mistakes will happen!" Because of this truth none of us, myself included, should ever beat ourselves up, put ourselves down, or think of ourselves less than who we are. When your riding a unicycle, spinning over 100 plates, some plates are going to fall, hit the ground and break. I thought about the next part and discovered that the real trick is spinning the plates that matter and doing the best i can on all the others. The best i can do is all anyone can expect.

I am going to leave this entry right here for right now because I want to convey the feelings of what a sinful world we live in. This disease sucks, I hate it and I do want to be healed from it. But, as long as father says no, I will take each day as it comes, make the best of it and let his grace be sufficient. I am thankful for my family and especially my wife: she is truly a gift from father.

Have a blessed week, I love all of you, continue to pray for Sharon and I: I think the light is showing up at the end of the tunnel... Gene
P.S. My granddaughter Marci listened to it and my granddaughter Sarah editted and made corrections. Each one gave and I gave back, a kiss of love. Thank you Sarah, Marci, and Lynette.