IBD Brave

Inflammatory bowel disease is classified as an invisible illness, so there’s not a need for anyone to tell us that we don’t appear to be sick. If we were to open up a portal for others to look inside our bodies, you would see the inflammation of our intestines for starters. A smile and a positive attitude does not equate to good health. This just simply means we have our ways of dealing with it because we have a lifetime to perfect strength.

I don’t know how many times I need to prove others that I’m sick to finally make them believe it.

Rather than letting our negativity get the better of us, we could acknowledge that right now we feel like a piece of shit and not be squeamish about taking a good look.

Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.

When things fall apart in your life, you feel as if your whole world is crumbling. But actually, it’s your fixed identity that’s crumbling. And as Chögyam Trungpa used to tell us, that’s cause for celebration.

When I meet a doctor who has no idea what they're doing.