What's got you cranky these days?

Hello subscribers, hello visitors. Let's chat

Substack used to only let paid subscribers post comments. And I don’t charge for subscriptions.

(That’s not to say that I couldn’t use some donations towards this project; feel free to give if you have the means. The first 50 donors of $25 or more will be granted a lifelong honorary cranky title with certificate of authenticity verifying that it is so.)

But now, everyone can comment… So, fellow illders, I invite you to share, sound off, let loose, lay it out!

[Image description: Closeup photograph of a white gull with a wide open red-orange beak. Photo by Holger Link on Unsplash]

Here’s two prompts — you could answer one, or both, or post about other matters of importance to you:

• One or more lessons you are grateful for / happy about / proud of that you’ve learned from living with chronic illness.

• One or more lessons you are frustrated by/angry about/sad about having learned from living with chronic illness.

No need to be profound or comprehensive. Feel free to be specific or vague, trivial or deep. This is for you and for us.

I’ll start things off with one of each:

• I’m grateful that living with chronic illnesses has taught me that I can “eat” delicious cheese just by smelling it and focusing on that sense. Especially if it is the kind of nasty, stinky cheese that I really love. And that it means I can do it for free at a store. And, for that matter, I am grateful that I can smell things, after spending the first 12 years of my life basically not having a sense of smell because my allergies and congestion were that bad.

• I’m angry that there’s so many possible causes, known and unknown, that makes my skin to being super fragile. By this point in the winter, it seems like every few minutes there’s another raw spot and I don’t know what, if anything, I can do. And I resent having to slather myself with lotion to try to change it. So I don’t. And I know that probably makes it worse, and then I’m angry at the lotion and at me and at everything and it itches.

Please let me know if you’ve got other topics you’d like to discuss. Thanks for reading and sharing — and stay cranky.