On my second semester abroad at Regent’s College in London, my roommate and I took up a bad habit. Well, many bad habits – that’s another story for another day – but one in particular involved the squirrels.
London is very much like other big cities in the world with large parks that have very tame squirrels and birds because of all the people who feed them.
Our domitory had dense ivy growing on the walls and the windows had no screens. We wondered “If we put out food on the window ledge, would the squirrels find it?”
We tried our initial food feeding experiment one morning and came back from class to find the food gone. So we continued this little ritual for a week or so. Soon, the squirrel became very comfortable getting a regular meal and comfortable with us watching him eat on our ledge. Until one fateful night…..
Deep in slumber on the bottom bunk, I awoke to the terrific and terrifying scurry of little squirrel feet dancing a “I need food on the ledge” dance on a circle around on my belly!
Some of you may be laughing, but I would imagine most of you are rolling your eyes with the expectant – duh. What did we expect? Well, we expected the squirrel to eat our snacks on the ledge and not get too demanding – in essence we expected to make a little innocent squirrel friend.
Lesson in unintended consequences was complete.
In Lyme disease there are unitended consequences. We Lymies spend countless hours wondering when our ground zero point of infection was and how we could have prevented it. We beat our selves up with “why didn’t I see it coming before I got chronically incapacitated”.
But hear me when I say it again – it is an unitended consequence. Going hiking or camping with the family shouldn’t result in a family stricken with chronic Lyme, but it can and does. It is unitended. It is unfortunate, but not entirely preventable or within our control.
This illness and its vicious coinfection friends are vicious and evil and very very bad. But none of us opened the door and willingly invited them inside.
It is not like the power of addiction that gets a person caught up in the fun until it is too late – those are real consequences and I’ve lived them.
Lyme is not your fault. It is NOT your fault. I don’t care what your neighbor or family or friend is saying too loudly behind your back. You did nothing to deserve or cause this in your life. It is just your cross to bear and I hate that for you. It sucks.
But along with the terrible fight of Lyme, you cannot spend time wondering and blaming. It just is, move on and beat this thing. Fight for normal and real and happiness and vitality – don’t let it take you down. You didn’t invite it in, so KICK IT OUT!
My prayer for you is this:
God has not given you a spirit of fear (timidity), but a spirit of power, of love and pf a sound mind. (2 Timoth 1:7)
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Blessings,
Janice
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