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Showing posts with label Resting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Resting. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

thank you birdies

'thank you birdies'
© 20-27 April 2016 by Shiloh Moore
5"x5" Pitt Pen and Watercolour on Paper

This is the second 'Thank You' card I finished on the 27th April.  I love simplified birdies and used rainbow colours to bring them alive.  Note the green one is resting and doing its own thing, backwards to all the other brightly alert birdies.  No prizes for guessing which birdie I identify with!

I include the green resting birdie, who is cared for by all the other birds who let her join in, and note the rainbow wouldn't be complete without her.  It's a thank you card for all who look after me and let me join in, and for all those other green birdies out there, you are an important part of the rainbow!


Sunday, March 13, 2016

Poem: 'I Dream Of Simple Things'

Some healthy people ask what it's like to live with severe ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia.  Living with severe chronic illness my dreams are simple.  Conquering basic tasks become monumental achievements and things to be celebrated.  Here I try to describe just a few of my dreams:

‘I DREAM OF SIMPLE THINGS’
© 2016 By Shiloh Moore
  (13/1/16)
 
I dream of doing simple things
Even chores and basic tasks
Like to do things independently
And not always have to ask

I’d like to really cook
And not just have to defrost
To eat sitting up with company
And painlessly consume without cost

To have a daily shower
And shave my legs with ease
Clean my teeth for two whole minutes
Tame my wild hair to look less teased

To do all my own shopping
For groceries and necessities
To buy my own choice of things
And treat myself occasionally

To be able to sit up for visitors
Not to have to lie down all the time
To go out for coffee or a social meal
And stay for a decent while

To create art while sitting up
With no need to lie down throughout
To have freedom to fearlessly create
Without a long term pain payout

To type while I can sit up
For as long as I wish each day
To use a phone to text and talk
Without dead arms, neck cramps, and strain

To walk a fair distance and stand
Without instant pain and feeling faint
To exercise and feel good
To help with my Diabetes and weight

To need less than fourteen hours sleep
And to wake up feeling strong and refreshed
To feel bright and alert every day
Rather than tired and needing rest

To lie down perfectly still
Yet to feel no intense constant pain
Is an experience I have forgotten
And can only dream of knowing again

To be able to joke and to smile
With no face pain limiting my laugh
To talk comfortably, to be truly me
Is this really too much to ask?

My dreams may seem very simple
But I’ll celebrate if any come true
The truth is I appreciate all I can do
And I try not to fear losing that too


Disclaimer:  Feel free to share this link, but please do not reproduce this poem without consent from the author. Shiloh Moore can be contacted at her website at:   http://shilohmoore.wix.com/byshi

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

My Precious Body

'Resting Peace'
copyright 1998 by Shiloh Moore
Watercolour on A3 paper.

I painted 'Resting Peace' 15 years ago when I was 18 and dependent on a wheelchair to leave the house, recovering from a full year totally bedridden barely able to talk or eat or sit up.  My mother bathed and fed me during this time and even this was a mammoth effort for me.  The blues and purples in the outside of the picture represent the ease of the world, the beauty outside of my body.  The reds of my body represent pain and discomfort, blood stagnant and aching all over.  This was my rest.  I would try to tune out the pain in my body and see if I could notice and take on the outside stimulus of the gentle blues.  Mostly I was overwhelmed with the pain.

At this time I hated my body as all it brought me was pain and exhaustion and thousands of terrible symptoms.  I felt caged in this body, trapped, being tortured, no way out...  

Now, 15 years later and still experiencing extreme pain constantly, I realise it's not my body that confines me and causes me grief.  My poor little body is so weakend by this powerful illness and yet it still keeps going, keeps fighting, keeps me alive to experience the love, small joys and simple pleasures of this wonderful world.  It allows me to experience existence.  

My body is not a cage trapping me in torture, it is an amazingly strong and resilient beautiful marvel coping with a massive load while still helping me experience this life, which beyond the illness is precious.  My body's a fighter, powerful and valuable.  Oh little body how I love you.

When I'm in a lot of pain I now talk to my body, encourage it kindly to keep going, thanking it for surviving thus far, asking it to continue.  The other night I couldn't sleep due to pain so I lay awake talking to my body giving it love.  I wrote this:  

"My Precious Body'
copyright Shiloh Moore 15/9/13

Precious brave body
keep fighting
You deal with so much
such a heavy load
for such young shoulders

Keep on Keeping on
Look after you
Stay strong - 
You can do it.

You live so broken
so frail
so invaded
yet you survive
and continue to live 
using great strength.

You experience life so richly and deeply
even when you are forced to have bedrest,
hour after hour, day after day

My body:  You Belong.
There is purpose for your being.

How powerful and strong you are
Despite feeling so helpless
frustrated and overwhelmed,
pained and utterly exhausted.

You are amazing
You are precious
Keep fighting beautiful one
Oh little body how I love you.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

"I Am"

I have been in a bad patch health wise, unable to do any art for a month. I've been dreaming of lots of projects, itching to try mixed media again, and a stencil painting, but I don't have the strength to do either. A couple nights ago I was able to do some drawing lying down, and, while I imagine a grand large mixed media project from it, for now I have used watercolour.

"I Am" A4 Watercolour on Paper (c) 2012 Shiloh Moore

"I Am"  

copyright 8/3/12 by Shiloh Moore
While my body's wracked
With pain and exhaustion
of an indescribable magnitude...
Unable to do anything but lie here,
Hours, days, weeks on end...
I am...

I am the flute goddess I've always dreamed of being
I am flying free,
Filled with unearthly beautiful music.
I am beyond this broken body...
I am content and at peace.
I am okay.
I am...