I am embarrassingly late to jump on the bandwagon but I managed to watch The Greatest Showman, it was released on DVD here in the UK recently. Baloo and I sat down to watch it, which was a big deal as Baloo is beyond allergic to musicals. I haven’t been to the cinema in such a long time because of the ME so I am always playing catch-up. Getting back to my point the beautiful song “This Is Me” reminded me that even though we as chronic illness peeps might not fit into normal society or have our conditions recognised, we have as much beauty in our imperfections as any other does.

The lyrics spoke to me on a deeper level, I’ll leave my favourite verse below this. We have a lot of struggles but we have power even if we feel weak. ME Awareness week reminded me of that after reading so many blog posts and articles about how it is affecting people on any given day.

“When the sharpest words wanna cut me down
I’m gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out
I am brave, I am bruised
I am who I’m meant to be, this is me
Look out ’cause here I come
And I’m marching on to the beat I drum
I’m not scared to be seen
I make no apologies, this is me”

I truly recommend the film and I have truly fallen in love with this song. It is a fabulous story and the soundtrack is sensational. It’s going on my motivation playlist for those days when you need a little lift and a powerful reminder that you have power, talents and a unique gift to give the world.

How many times do we apologise for being in the way, needing help or for just having symptoms? We should make no apologies for being us. We shouldn’t feel the need to explain or justify our mere existences. How different would our lives be if we had the attitude of this is ME? Would we care less about how people view us and the loud opinions we hear about ourselves? Or how our community is portrayed in the media?

I am a woman who is scared of envelopes in the post and dreads doctor appointments and who is tired of the battles that I encounter every day. I sometimes need reminding to keep on getting up. To keep opening the scary envelopes and attending doctors appointments.
At the end of the day, this is ME and I don’t have any other option than to continue as positively as I can. I don’t want to end up a bitter recluse.

Being strong sometimes means admitting the hurts and the determination to try and get back up again. The vulnerability of talking about our scars ends up showing our grace, our dignity and courage.