CHRISTMAS

I don't want a lot for Christmas...  Or, in the dulcet tones of Mariah Carey:

"I don't want a lot for Christmas;

There is just one thing I need;

I don't care about the presents;

Underneath the Christmas tree" ...
 

Growing up I was one of those girls that just wanted a pony.  I dreamed of owning my own pony to ride and groom and feed carrots.  That was it.  Nothing else.  If you'd have asked me as a child what I wanted for Christmas ... I just really wanted a pony.  Perhaps some felt-tip pens too.

Now that I have grown up and I am living with MS, I find that the things that I want, the thing that I really really most want is for an 'MS Free Christmas'.  What I would really like most are:

• For the pain to end
• A reduction in Fatigue: aka the energy to meet with Friend and to enjoy life.

I have kind of got used to my other symptoms and have lived with them for so long (I was DX in 2011, but have lived with symptoms for much longer) - symptoms such as poor balance and cognitive difficulties and mood swings and dysaesthesia and bladder malfunctions and difficulties walking) that I have forgotten what it is like to live without them.  They have become part of who I am, I have adapted to accommodate them within my everyday life.  They are getting worse, but I have begrudging adapted, I have learned to adapt and accept that they are part of who I am, and so I just get on with it as best as I can.

But you do have moments, I have moment, when you think, when I think 'An MS free Christmas', how simply fabulous would that be?  But, Yes, if I got those things, if I got the things that are top of my list for an MS Free Christmas, if I got an end to my pain and a reduction in Fatigue: aka the energy to meet with Friend and to enjoy life, then I guess I would still probably, secretly still really really like a pony too... or a donkey ... and probably a puppy ... or a kitten ...
 

 

And I guess I would like World Peace and an end to hunger and an end to poverty and ease of access to clean drinking water.  I mean this is, as we've said the season of good-will to all men.  I am also reminded that 'Christmas is the time of year to be Grateful and count your blessings'.

 

 

I recognise that even living with MS I do have a tremendous amount to be grateful for.  So, what am I grateful for?  What blessings am I counting?

 

 

I think that I am most grateful for my friends.  To those kind, loving, energetic, strong, supportive, caring, courageous, patient, amazing; absolutely flipping AMAZING people in my life that I am both proud and grateful to call my friends.  I know that they are there for me; and that means the world.  They have been there for me when I have needed someone to be there for me.  They have not always been able to sort things out for me, or even to help, but they have ensured that I haven't faced things alone.  This is indeed a true test of friendship.  More than I could ever ask for.  Something that I cannot repay and something I am immensely grateful for.

 

 

So, What do you want for Christmas?  What is top of your Christmas list?  Whatever it is that you want, or think that you want, do spend a moment thinking and listing the things that you already have and that you are grateful for.  But, I do hope that you all get a pony.

 

 

May I wish you complements of the season and wish you a very Merry Christmas.  And in the words of Tiny Tim, "God Bless us everyone." (Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, 1843).