The list of things Lyme causes goes on and on for pages. My symptoms alone from Lyme and its various co-infections spanned an entire page. It can take and it can damage and it can destroy and it can kill. But we are not going there today. Let’s look in the “negative” space left after the “taking” has been done and see what remains. Let’s take a look at the things that Lyme cannot do and cannot take. A wise Lyme warrior friend sent me an anonymous poem this week.
Lyme IS so limited…It cannot cripple love, It cannot shatter hope, It cannot corrode faith, It cannot eat away peace, It cannot destroy confidence, It cannot kill friendship, It cannot shut out memories, It cannot silence courage, It cannot invade the soul, It cannot reduce eternal life, It cannot quench the spirit, It cannot lessen the power of resurrection. Anonymous
This poem resonated in my mind and soul this week. I saw an out of town Lyme warrior friend and she caught me up on her last few months journey and gave me as a gift, her band’s music cd. As I was playing it and listening to her glorious music and thinking about how limited her life is right now to perform, write, sing and play – it hit me.
The poem is correct that Lyme cannot take Love or Peace or Faith or HOPE away from us. It can and has damaged friendships, although it has replaced those with abundant and fruitful new heart friends. It has at time stolen memories, at least for a short while when I couldn’t access them due to brain fog. But there is something the poem didn’t mention that Lyme is not allowed to do.
Lyme cannot take our talents and gifts. It cannot take who we are.
The music is still inside of my warrior Lyme friend, even if it cannot get out right now.
Lyme hasn’t silenced her gift. It cannot. It does not have permission to take her talent.
The music to be created and the talent to create it still has residence in her heart and soul. The music might not be able to come to fruition today, but it lives. She might not be able to play the way she used to, but the music still plays in her mind.
The talent placed in this woman’s life lives on despite her Lyme and health battle.
In the movie Braveheart, William Wallace played by Mel Gibson’s character give a rousing speech in front of the Scottish troops before battle. He lists off all the things that England might take from them and ends with “but they may never take our freedom!”
You might not feel very free right now struggling in chronic illness just to get out of bed or unload the dishwasher. Its a pretty giant leap from accomplishing mundane tasks to feeling free. But as he stated in the speech, Wallace is inclined to believe that freedom is not an outward display of limitation or limitlessness.
Freedom is in the heart. It cannot be stolen or broken or taken unless we release it, or give permission for it to depart.
What is yours that you are not going to allow the Lyme to take? What lives in you that belongs to you and cannot be broken or demolished?
I began to think about all the other talent I know that is living in the hearts and minds of my fellow warriors. It might be temporarily dormant or silent, but it still lives.
This time period of “silence” within your gift and talent is incubating new growth. In this quiet time of rest and rejuvenation, your gift and talents are not dwindling away but growing and morphing into a new thing. They are soaking in all of life going on around you and adding in this life’s experience in order to be more full and robust.
You have not been derailed. You are not out of commission. You are being aged like wine in the cellar to be better, stronger with more to give.
Take your white knuckled grip off your career and gifts and let them grow in this time of life. No, they might never be the same. Celebrate because they won’t ever be the same. Awesome – they are growing and changing and becoming ready for life within the new normal you.
Lyme has been given a fence and a leash of restriction to have only what it can have. Don’t give it permission to take an ounce more.
You are still you. You were still created in God’s image to do a good work “which he created in advance for you to do” (Eph 2:10) The talent and gifts of your heartbeat are still inside the precious part of your soul that lies behind the protective wall safely away from this chronic disease. It is in the shelter and it will be ready to bloom again.
Whether you are a singer, painter, accountant, salesmen, doctor or lawyer – you will bloom again into a part of the powerful force of renewed Lyme talent.
Blessings and healing,
Janice Fairbairn – The Lyme Evangelist
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