This
is the second time I have featured my friend, Karen Magill on my blog. Her story is so inspiring that I wanted to
include it in my month of gratitude stories.
By the way, Karen’s blog, the Vancouver Vagabond is chocked full of
great photography and short essays, and has been nominated for the prestigious
Vancouver Social Media Award. The link
to the blog is http://karen-magill.blogspot.com.
I
hope all of you will come back to visit me next week to discover the incredible
gratitude story of my friend, as well as one of my heroes, Paulette
Mahurin. And now, heeeeeeere’s
Karen:
On June 5, 2000, I woke to find the left side
of my body partially paralysed. Nine
days later, after an MRI, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and I started
down a journey unlike anything I have ever been on before.
The paralysis went away but I lived in
fear. I heard all the horror stories
about how dismal my life was going to be now, or how I was destined for a
wheelchair, or how I was going to lose my eyesight. I am happy to say that twelve years later,
none of those things have happened.
Although I do use a cane, I walk quite
well. In fact, I walk all over Vancouver,
Canada taking photos of whatever interests me, as well as historical sites. Then I come home and post the photos in a blog
entitled the Vancouver Vagabond, combining the pictures with stories of my
city’s history.
Gone are the nights when I could stay up
all hours writing. My body can’t handle
that any longer. So my books may take me
longer to write, but I am more careful on what I put on ‘paper’ as they say. I do have episodes of writing wildly and ending
up with a lot of garbage—most writers do since it releases the tension and the
creative juices, but those times are limited. When I work on my novels I have a pretty good
idea of which scene I am going to write.
My emotions can run wild—I can’t remember
ever crying as easily as I do now. Those
emotions that can sometimes be so raw and intense are translated into my
writing now. A writer has to bring the
reader into the story and make them feel something. It may take a few attempts, but I can
translate the intensity of what I feel onto paper.
Multiple Sclerosis may have taken a lot
away from me, yet in so many ways it was one of the best things to happen to me
and my writing. There is a new maturity
and perspective to my writing. I wonder
if I would ever have reached the levels I am at now if I were still working a
full time job and struggling in the rat race. I doubt it.
