Chronic Illness

“What does it look like and feel like, I can only imagine”, that’s what people ask and say when they don’t know. For the people in the back who don’t have a clue, JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE DOES NOT APPEAR ILL DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE NOT! Often people assume unless you look sick that you are fine, that cannot be further from the truth. This is one of the many examples on why you cannot judge a book by its cover. Back in April when I went for a check up I remember sitting with Paul in the waiting room and seeing a family with a son in his early 20s (age based purely on assumption) and I could see the look of concern and fear. The young man sat there jaundice as can be covered in a large fuzzy blanket shivering cold and all I could do was sit, watch and empathize. He asked the doctor in the waiting room, “there was some mold when I was redoing something could that have caused this”. What he was talking about was something so small and was not something he was exposed to for a long period of time. I will never assume how someone gets to where I am at today but I empathized with the fact that the level of uncertainty and long road they have ahead of them. We recognize people being sick simply based on things we can physically see. Today I ask you to stop and think about those who are battling things that we cannot see because for the one person you see who is sick, there are just as many that go unnoticed. I encourage you to be mindful and to not jump to conclusions on those around you, for we do not know what is going on behind closed doors. May you hold the door open for someone else who may be going unnoticed so they can feel seen. From the greatest movie of all time ; “seeing isn’t believing, believing is seeing”(The Santa Clause, 1994).