Allergies - Reasons to be Cheerful?

YAY! It's Friday! And a Bank Holiday weekend type of Friday, at that! Even I can see the positive in that! Now there's a reason to be cheerful, all by itself!

Half empty? Half full?

Are you a 'glass half full' or a 'glass half empty' type of a person? Me, I'd like to be the glass half full type, but it just doesn't come naturally to me. Instead, I have a tendency to look for the problems in life, so I can be fully prepared to deal with them when they happen to me.

Hence, a few years ago, when it looked like I was going to miscarry at six/seven weeks, I drove The Hub mad, by investigating websites about miscarriage. But you see I just had to know - to be prepared for the worst when it happened. And it did. So I sort of felt vindicated, in my approach.

I wasn't prepared, in that way, for Baby's cow's milk protein intolerance. Nothing had prepared me for that one! It's not like it's in the family, or anything.

When Baby was first diagnosed I have to admit, there was a big screaming, 'Nooooooooo!' inside me. There's been a fair few old times since, when I've asked the question, 'Why?'

'Why me? Why us? Why Baby?' And then I've had to stop myself and think, 'Well, why not? Statistically, for whatever reason, it seems it had to happen to someone, so why not us?' And then it seems to me to have been a bit selfish to have wished it on someone else instead. 

Baby, another reason to be cheerful!

Of course, those thoughts don't stop me wanting Baby's intolerance to go away, of course I want her to be 'better'! I love milk, cheese, cream etc. etc. - the more the merrier! It would make life so much easier not having to examine every food label or go to one shop for one thing, another for something else, the next town's health food shop, for something I can't just pick up at the Supermarket - it's a non-stop juggling act. Just don't even get me started on eating out!

But now, it seems that there might actually be a reason for it! Some professor has come up with the wacky idea that allergies are actually a blessing!?! Now don't get me wrong - I'm not saying, 'Bring it on!' especially as the theory doesn't seem to be completely proven (as yet) but it does give me a slight sense of 'Oh!' (in a 'light suddenly dawns' kind of a way).

It reminds me of a story of a Dutch lady, who was sent to a concentration camp during the Second World War. She was kept in the worst kind of conditions imaginable. Yet she learned to be thankful for the fleas that infested her bunk house. It was these that kept the Nazi guards from coming in, conducting searches and confiscating the prisoners' few remaining possessions. This lady's most treasured possession was her Bible.

I don't think I am quite in that place where I'm ready to be thankful for the 'fleas' in my life - the things that irritate and disturb me, make life difficult and get me down (such as allergies) but I am grateful for a whole lot of other things, and one of those is freedom - to think, speak, be silent, go here or there. What a reason to be cheerful today!


What are your reasons to be cheerful, today?


Why am I writing about this? I read Mummy From The Heart's Blog Hop and felt inspired to join in!