Sunshine and Moonlight — A Journey with Multiple Sclerosis

Everyone has Sunshine and Moonlight in their lives. It’s just that my sunshine and moonlight has come in the form of Multiple Sclerosis. So, why the name “Sunshine and Moonlight”? When I was diagnosed, I was amazed by the negative terms that were tossed around –bad days, MS days, remission, relapses, episodes, disease progression. All scary. All negative. I’ve chosen to focus on the positive instead, as I search to find the “new normal” in my life. “Sunshine” (my husband’s nickname for me) — represents my post MS-diagnosis day-to-day life. And, “Moonlight” — represents everything else. I consider myself to be a Patient-Educator, here to help others newly diagnosed and those continuing their battles with M.S. And, this, my friends, brings us to “Sunshine and Moonlight — A Journey with Multiple Sclerosis.” Welcome!

Feed on: Posts; Comments

Let’s Help James!

December 17, 2007 by kfabrizio

I made a new friend yesterday! This is one of the many blessings of having M.S., I’m meeting new and wonderful people. This new friend is James S. Huggins. He has a great M.S. website, full of resources, links to information, reviews of M.S.-related books. And, no, he doesn’t have M.S.! I’m not going to tell you much more about James just yet. I’m hoping he’ll submit his story for my new O Sole Mio SUNdays feature.

But, James needs our help. Here’s what he wrote:

I need your help. On my personal site, at http://JSH.us/ms my MS pages have a photo of a wheelchair. Your site has inspired me and I want to change that photo. It needs to be something else. I need your help and the help of your friends to help me choose a better picture. I don’t need the actual image, just ideas. What would be a good image for MS? Or, what would be a good SET of IMAGES for MS? I’m open to all ideas.

So many of you help me rid my life of the scary M.S. words invading it and selected my replacements — Sunshine, Moonlight, sparkles and spots, and even Liebestropfchen. I’m calling on you now to give James that same help. Visit the site, take a look at the current photo and layout and then reply here with your ideas and suggestions.

A note to all my other new friends from MSWorld and from Daily Strength — thanks for welcoming me into your worlds and I hope you continue to visit Sunshine and Moonlight!

Posted in Activism, My Support Network, Other Inspirations | 9 Comments

9 Responses to “Let’s Help James!”

on December 17, 2007 at 3:10 pm1 JHutchinson

I quickly read the page James has that tells about the people who have MS. Virginia Sanchez submitted a story that really moved me. As a result of this story and some other things that I read on James’ site, here are some image suggestions:

I learned that people who have MS are seemingly strong and beautiful yet in reality, they are very fragile. To reflect that, I suggest the following for images:

Coral Reef (my favorite)
Seashell
Ming vase/piece of China dishware
Any fragile flower (rose, orchid, bird of paradise)
Egg

Hope this helps you find an image that will help others who don’t have MS better understand what it’s like to have this disease and to hopefully remember as they speak that some words–though spoken with good intent–really hurt.
on December 17, 2007 at 3:10 pm2 kfabrizio

Hi James, here’s a posting from one of the folks on Daily Strength’s MS Forum (I posted my blog entry there, too):

Maybe there should be an image of people doing things that they are not able to do with their bodies anymore, because of MS. But in their mind, they can do them and they are capable of a lot.
on December 17, 2007 at 4:02 pm3 Mom

Kim I looked at James’ site and loved the picture of the front door with the flowers. Maybe he should consider having a plain door on the intro page with a sign that has a nice background (muted) such a globe and the words “enter into the MS information world”.
on December 17, 2007 at 6:55 pm4 Tracy E

Well, Kim…I would use a lot of words to describe you….FRAGILE is NOT one of them! Not sure if James would want to portray people with MS as something fragile. I do love all the suggestions, but I think there is something better out there for him.
on December 17, 2007 at 8:42 pm5 ania

Finding one image to depict MS is difficult…We’re many faces and many ablilities. A blending of ideas, wishes and hopes just like anyone else…Our hope has initials attached to it, that can sometimes tingle and make us extremly fatigued…LOL

Blend many images of hope…with or without tingly dots.
on December 17, 2007 at 10:54 pm6 James S. Huggins

Thank you for the ideas so far. They are helpful and have me thinking. Please keep ‘em coming. I can use your help.

James S. Huggins
http://JSH.us/ms

…
on December 18, 2007 at 8:53 am7 kfabrizio

James,

Angela, one of my new friends from MSWorld has given me permission to post these links here. While the pictures/photos can’t be used for a private web site (they are copyrighted), she thought they may provide some inspiration for you.

Here is a link to Angela’s MS Awareness Gallery: http://www.myspace.com/aesbroo

And, here is a link to MSWorld’s Artist Trading Cards — Series 5: http://www.msworld.org/html/Art_ATCseries5.htm

These are mini works of art — trading cards — whose theme was “In My Shoes”, depicting how it feels to be in the artist’s shoes as a person with M.S.

We hope these provide inspiration.
on December 19, 2007 at 11:28 pm8 James S. Huggins

Ok.

See http://JSH.us/ms for the new photo.

Click the link UNDER the photo for the story.

James
on December 20, 2007 at 8:36 am9 kfabrizio

James, you and Brenda couldn’t have chosen a more perfect photo! Bravo!