How getting Multiple Sclerosis has ended up being a good thing

      MS has been one of the best things that happened to me. No really.

I spent most of my life taking care of other people. I worked in nursing homes, foster care homes for the elderly, and people with disabilities and it became my passion. But I worked long hours. I worked twenty years helping people with disabilities live alone in their own apartments, I was an outreach worker helping them with a myriad of tasks, shopping, banking, advocacy, problem-solving, crisis intervention. I was on call for five days a week and it was very stressful. There were days I worked 16 hours a day coming home and working well into the night to get my paperwork done, write care plans, and plan for my staff meeting where I supervised three assistants. 

So it was ironic when I got MS and I was forced to retire at the age of 53. It allowed me to stop taking care of everyone and to focus on my health. I slowed down, enjoyed my gardens and potted plants, cooked by scratch, enjoyed more time with my boyfriend and my new life because I was around home more often

Well, one day when cleaning out my closets I found my journals from when I first moved to Oregon when I worked in the Wallowa Mountains doing timber inventory, living in my tent, working in Wilderness areas. Well, as I sat there reading and chuckling, I thought this would make a good book and I started writing and produced three books that are in Rhe Eve Chronicles by Diane DeVillers, If I wouldn't have gotten MS I never would have had the time to write my books. Check out my author page at amazon.com  The biggest shift in my life was realizing that toxic emotions, people with toxic emotions were people I couldn't have in my life anymore, they made me physically ill, draining all my energy. So I started taking care of me, I joke' It's all about me!! and that was the biggest thing I had to learn, with MS if I do too much or get too hot it sets me back

I have the Progressive MS and in ten yrs haven't gotten worse, I have a half-paralyzed leg and wear a brace to keep my foot from dropping down and tripping me, I have severe back pain from pulling that leg around when walking, and the fatigue that people with MS well know.

The best thing for me is I'm into exercise, twice a day I ride my inside bike for nearly an hour and twice a week I swim laps for an hour. I swear that I feel better mentally and physically and I think the exercise is keeping my half-paralyzed leg keep from atrophy.

So although the fatigue gets me I have to save my energy to last all day it's like I have a bucket of water which is my energy and every task I do it's like taking a ladle full of water out, so I have enough energy to last all day I see my bucket getting empty as the day goes along. If I don't pay attention to it I pay by having to lay in bed the next day. 

I also produced my CD named Camas Swale, check it out on Bandcamp or Tindeck. Although I can only play about four or five songs before my back pain makes me sit and rest awhile. 

My yard is my pride and joy, my lush flower gardens are brimming with fern, hosta's, calla lilies. I have two porches full of big pots filled with salvia, marigold, lavender, heather, basil, oregano, thyme, sage, and Lily of the Nile, I have a raised bed garden where I grow everything to make my homemade salsa onions, tomatoes, peppers, and lettuce and spinach for our salads.

I have to pace myself, working a half-hour at a time before I have to lay down and stop my back pains. Then it's up again for another short spurt of energy.

 MS has been very good to me.

Who knows what the future will be but I'm fine with it

https://dianedevillers.wordpress.com/2019/04/28/father-at-86-and-daughter-at-63-both-publish-books/
My father and I published our books, books that are very different in subject matter, his is a historical novel about the Korean and Afghanistan War, highly researched and reads like  Tom Clancy novel.
"The Stone Horse & Droshki" by Ken De Villers is also a story of enduring love. It's an adventure historical novel, the memoirs of Colonel General Yuri Danilov, the son of an American Sioux Indian and a Ukrainian Mother. Master spy for the Soviet KGB. Top Gun fighter pilot in the Korean, Vietnam and the Soviet Afghanistan wars. Privy to the internal workings of the Soviet Union’s Politburo. Also a story of love and devotion between Yuri and the beautiful Japanese-Russian Eiko Haraoka.
My book is called "The Eve Chronicles" by Diane DeVillers:
The paperback book is three novellas, inspired by the author's own journals about her relationships, life, and work in the forests of Oregon, comprise The Eve Chronicles.
The first book is called “From the Waters of Coyote Springs”: Eve searches for meaning to her life while working in the forest of the Wallowa Mountains in Oregon. Living in her tent she spends the day doing timber inventory for the Forest Service. Five other mismatched foresters live in the camp with her.
Felix and Eve: Felix hires Eve; he’s a cantankerous elderly man who needs round-the-clock nursing care. She’s a live-in-the-moment type of person. Once Felix accepts her, he tells of his relationship with the notorious gangster, Al Capone in Chicago during the 1930s.
The Arrangement: Each year under a special arrangement Eve spends the summer on Catalina Island with Sid, a retired college Professor and Eve's former lover, who has a debilitating type of Multiple Sclerosis. An irony is that the author, having left the forests to work with people as a caregiver, was later diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. This afforded her the opportunity to retire early and focus on writing.
The three eBooks are available at Smashwords.com or Amazon.com or any other site that sells eBooks. The paperback book is available on Amazon and books stores that can access the Ingram Catalog.

Another Way to Look at Life and Death

The Egg

By: Andy Weir

You were on your way home when you died.

It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.

And that’s when you met me.

“What… what happened?” You asked. “Where am I?”

“You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words.

“There was a… a truck and it was skidding…”

“Yup,” I said.

“I… I died?”

 “Yup. But don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,” I said.

You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. “What is this place?” You asked. “Is this the afterlife?”

“More or less,” I said.

“Are you god?” You asked.

“Yup,” I replied. “I’m God.”

“My kids… my wife,” you said.

“What about them?”

“Will they be all right?”

“That’s what I like to see,” I said. “You just died and your main concern is for your family. That’s good stuff right there.”

You looked at me with fascination. To you, I didn’t look like God. I just looked like some man. Or possibly a woman. Some vague authority figure, maybe. More of a grammar school teacher than the almighty.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “They’ll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn’t have time to grow contempt for you. Your wife will cry on the outside, but will be secretly relieved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it’s any consolation, she’ll feel very guilty for feeling relieved.”

“Oh,” you said. “So what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?”

“Neither,” I said. “You’ll be reincarnated.”

“Ah,” you said. “So the Hindus were right,”

“All religions are right in their own way,” I said. “Walk with me.”

You followed along as we strode through the void. “Where are we going?”

“Nowhere in particular,” I said. “It’s just nice to walk while we talk.”

“So what’s the point, then?” You asked. “When I get reborn, I’ll just be a blank slate, right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won’t matter.”

“Not so!” I said. “You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all your past lives. You just don’t remember them right now.”

I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. “Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic than you can possibly imagine. A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. It’s like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it’s hot or cold. You put a tiny part of yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, you’ve gained all the experiences it had.

“You’ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven’t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for long enough, you’d start remembering everything. But there’s no point to doing that between each life.”

“How many times have I been reincarnated, then?”

“Oh lots. Lots and lots. An in to lots of different lives.” I said. “This time around, you’ll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD.”

“Wait, what?” You stammered. “You’re sending me back in time?”

“Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different where I come from.”

“Where you come from?” You said.

“Oh sure,” I explained “I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there are others like me. I know you’ll want to know what it’s like there, but honestly you wouldn’t understand.”

“Oh,” you said, a little let down. “But wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, I could have interacted with myself at some point.”

“Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own lifespan you don’t even know it’s happening.”

“So what’s the point of it all?”

“Seriously?” I asked. “Seriously? You’re asking me for the meaning of life? Isn’t that a little stereotypical?”

“Well it’s a reasonable question,” you persisted.

I looked you in the eye. “The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature.”

“You mean mankind? You want us to mature?”

“No, just you. I made this whole universe for you. With each new life you grow and mature and become a larger and greater intellect.”

“Just me? What about everyone else?”

“There is no one else,” I said. “In this universe, there’s just you and me.”

You stared blankly at me. “But all the people on earth…”

“All you. Different incarnations of you.”

“Wait. I’m everyone!?”

“Now you’re getting it,” I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back.

“I’m every human being who ever lived?”

“Or who will ever live, yes.”

“I’m Abraham Lincoln?”

“And you’re John Wilkes Booth, too,” I added.

“I’m Hitler?” You said, appalled.

“And you’re the millions he killed.”

“I’m Jesus?”

“And you’re everyone who followed him.”

You fell silent.

“Every time you victimized someone,” I said, “you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you.”

You thought for a long time.

“Why?” You asked me. “Why do all this?”

“Because someday, you will become like me. Because that’s what you are. You’re one of my kind. You’re my child.”

“Whoa,” you said, incredulous. “You mean I’m a god?”

“No. Not yet. You’re a fetus. You’re still growing. Once you’ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born.”

“So the whole universe,” you said, “it’s just…”

“An egg.” I answered. “Now it’s time for you to move on to your next life.”

And I sent you on your way.