I have been struggling this week with migraines which is why I haven’t posted something sooner. This plague has been part of my life for over 40 years. Sometimes I wonder how I have survived them so long because some of them have been so horrendous, that when I was in the midst of them I didn’t want to be alive anymore. I have been to every kind of doctor to try to rid myself of this affliction, tried every kind of treatment and have prayed with faith and desperation. Yet, I still have them. After many prayers in which I pleaded for understanding, I received an answer as to why I have this terrible trial in my life. The answer that came was so that I would need God. The answer was humbling and yet unsatisfactory. Wasn’t there some other way? In fact it seemed like there were many other ways in which I needed my Father in Heaven. I have many children with difficult challenges which I prayed and worried about. We’ve had financial challenges through the years and just normal life situations. All through these I have prayed fervently for help. I also try to be diligent in scripture reading and saying my prayers and fulfilling my callings. It seems to me I try really hard to be a good person and yet, I still have these awful migraines. No matter what I do, lurking in the background is the fear that I will have a migraine and spoil yet another family outing or that I won’t be able to measure up in some way. I absolutely hate that these control my life. One particularly dark time started when my youngest child was almost 2 and my oldest was 17. For the next 6 years I had severe migraines every day and I lived in survival mode. It was during this time I sought every doctor and treatment I could find and nothing helped. I thought about dying because I thought that if my life offered me nothing but pain in the future, what was there to live for. I thought about dying because I wasn’t useful to anyone. I thought about dying because I hurt so much that I was existing and not really living.
Migraines obviously affected my family as well as myself. Sometimes I would lie in bed knowing I children who needed me, a household to run and a life to live. I wanted to be able to volunteer at my children’s schools and I wanted to fulfill church responsibilities. I wanted to be reliable and I wanted to be free of pain. I really wanted most of all to be a good wife and mother, and I couldn’t do any of these things. Most days I was lucky if I could do some laundry and put something in the crock pot so my family would have dinner. During those 6 years, and in subsequent years I did learn many things to help me get through those dark days. In future posts I will write some of the things I found helpful. Maybe they will be helpful to you too as you deal with whatever is painful in your life.
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2018/10/wounded?lang=eng
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/10/god-shall-wipe-away-all-tears?lang=eng
When I was in my early 20’s I saw a sign that said “A Dreamer Lives Forever” and I thought it was a great saying. I did little doodles with this saying and put them on my wall, and I felt it was profound. Currently there are similar signs that say things like “Dream Big” or “Live Your Dreams” and other similar thoughts, but now I think the sayings are a little incomplete. Dreaming is only one part of the equation. Without work or effort dreams amounts to very little, as well as efforts without dreams also don’t mean much. Thomas S. Monson had a saying that I particularly like, from a talk he gave in 1989. “Vision without effort is daydreaming, effort without vision is drudgery; but vision, coupled with effort, will obtain the prize.” I like this saying because there was a time when it seemed that all I did was work, work, work! I was always tired and it felt like my life was drudgery as I went from one thing to the next. When I read this quote I realized what was missing: vision. I was working hard without a vision of why I was expending so much effort. I did some pondering about why I was working so hard, raising my children and keeping up my home, trying to be a good wife and a good person. I thought about what my purpose was not only as a wife and mother but as a person and a child of God. I thought about why I was here on this earth and basically, what my goals in life were. It took me a while but slowly I started to look at things differently. I’d like to say that all the hard work went away but it didn’t and sometimes I didn’t keep my vision in the forefront of my thinking so sometimes it still seemed like drudgery. But my attitude and thinking did improve and at least I knew why I was doing all that hard work. Over the years I have gotten better at keeping my vision, my goals in my mind. Even now, with only one child at home, when life is easier, I still need to have vision and goals. I still need to know why I’m doing what I’m doing. Dreaming is good, and combining it with effort will win the prize.
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1989/06/finishers-wanted?lang=eng