The Gift of RA.....?!

So Lene got me to thinking.....DAMN YOU LENE!!  She answered someone's question (brilliantly as always) and followed by saying something to the effect of "RA doesn't just take, it also gives."  Now my first thought at seeing that was pretty much "What kind of horse shit is THAT!?"  But then like I said.....the thinking started.  It even kinda hurt a teensy weensy bit!

When I started to scratch the surface on that meditative phrase I was able to come up with this:  The gift of RA has given me the super human ability to look at other unfortunate "gifts" in a surprisingly optimistic light!  I mean who among us when confronted with the "Gift of RA" and the "Gift of a piece of dog poo wrapped in beautiful tissue and tied with a bow" would not find it in ourselves to comment on how the tissue paper really is quite, quite lovely?  Heck yeah!  TOTALLY!

But then I began to dig a little deeper and I came up with....well sure!  There have been times in my life when I would get entirely mired in the small stuff. My husband doesn't put the laundry away right.  I got a haircut that makes me look like Pinky Tuscaderro.  The fashion industry keeps making the "Size 8" smaller and smaller.  Wow!  Ok.  I gotta say in light of having RA who the heck really cares?!  My husband helps with laundry, I still have hair and......  Well they still HAVE to be making a smaller size 8 cuz it CERTAINLY can't be me!

Then finally, if I really dig in deep... I mean really REALLY crawl down in there, move some things around and make an effort, I actually DO think I can find some stuff!  Some real honest to goodness, stuff to be grateful for stuff!  Here are some I came up with;  I have always been the family care taker, the motivator, the shaker.  When diagnosed I had no idea how the heck this would all work out.  Surely the house would fall apart and my family would implode without my ever present guidance.  Well shame on me!  My husband is my hero who has totally stepped up to the plate in a way that I am ashamed to say I wouldn't have expected!  I'm quite sure he's had that in him the whole time, and I was just too wrapped up in my own self importance to either call upon it or notice! 

I'm also taking care of myself in a way that I would never have done or taken the time to do before!  Sure, I wish I wasn't in a situation that required it, but still!  I can never again take my skills and abilities for granted cuz now I'm aware of how much energy and effort is involved in maintaining them.  Before RA, I never realized that with all the people I would get frustrated with for taking me for granted, I WAS THE BIGGEST OFFENDER!!

I could go on, but I'm really interested if anyone else has had some of these same kinds of revelations.  Not to worry, I would never DREAM to say it was a trade off I would have chosen or would prefer.  RA sucks and there's no getting around it.  But what do you think?  Are there some ways in which it has also GIVEN you some things, and if so what are they?  .....or... maybe I'm just high on my meth.