Thrive

I was going through a host of websites looking for useful information pertaining to my condition when I stumbled upon a woman's website. She is a survivor of sexual child abuse. She and her twin sister were raped, sodomised and forced to perform oral sex by their father almost nightly for eight years. And many times they were subjected to sadistic torture. She started her blog to reach out to survivors like herself and to obtain healing by speaking out. The thing that really caught my attention was what she wrote. She asked whether, '... is it enough to merely want to survive? Or would you rather live your life by being a survivor who wants to thrive?'

A thriver. That made me think really long and hard. I then asked myself, 'Am I not surviving well?' I did not go through sexual abuse as a child. But I did go through a very, very tough period in my life which required me to fight daily in order to survive. I am still fighting daily for my life. And I am surviving. So that makes me a survivor. And I can proudly pat myself on my back that I survived and made it out alive. So what am I lacking then? I fought. I survived. I am alive. But am I thriving?

The word 'thrive' is a verb. Which means it is an action. It is something which you have to do.  The definition of 'thrive' is to prosper, to do well, to flourish, to grow, to develope, to advance, to succeed, to boom, to bloom, to grow rich, to grow strong and healthy. Which brings me to my point: are we people with Idiopathic Anaphylaxis thriving in our lives? Are we prospering where our souls are concerned? Are we doing well mentally? Are we flourishing in our attitudes toward life? Are we growing stronger in our attitude to fight? Are we advancing in this battle with Idiopathic Anaphylaxis? If you are not thriving, then you are merely surviving.

The thing with Idiopathic Anaphylaxis is that we never know when an attack will occur or how bad an attack can get. And in the midst of trying to find our footing in life all over again, we need to move forward and live a life which is full of LIFE! What is wrong with merely surviving? That would mean you are undermining your life from growing in leaps and bounds. By being a thriver, your soul would heal and be strengthened and that could attribute to your healing physically. Yes, we might not be able to travel anywhere to our whims and fancy (or even at all), we might not be able to eat whatever we want, we might not be able to spray ourselves with Elizabeth Arden or Christian Dior's Poison or even walk down the detergent aisle without holding our breath but to run past as quickly as possible with two fingers stuck into our nostrils. But by thriving, we will have the quality of life which all mankind so desperately need. And that is to live our lives even with our setbacks with a happy, contented and peaceful heart. So my million dollar question to you would be this: Are you a survivor or a thriver?




35 months ago was theday I met Death.