It’s 2:30 A.M. I am editing this blog. (where is everybody?) ; bleary-eyed, trying to understand the Blog manage directions; Smudge suddenly races through the diningroom into the kitchen, squealing. She is the Avenging Calico Kitten! She spins into my space trailing a Shop and Save bag cape; plowing into the the formation of felines waiting around the food bowls. She does a 180* and takes off for other parts to terrorize the next victim.

Smudge is a foster kitten. Her real name is Kissifur. I’m taking care of her while her owner finds an apartment.

Wait! There she goes again, sans  cape bounding onto the ironing board, leaping on to the spring-lid trash can, popping it open in time to dive in and avoid capture by the dreaded Bootsie. I fish her out.Plunk! and take down the ironing board.

I love my animals. When they lay with me on the couch I feel there unconditional love-energy soothe my soul. ….At 3:00 in the morning-ehk! I don’t understand  how it is possible to work at home with a house full of kids! Who ever you are, Bless You!!

Some of my coping skills can become stressers. I like to garden. Right now my garden needs to be managed.  After the last rain storm the supports on the crookneck and paddy-pan squash were blown over. A spaghetti plate of vines; too tangled and to fragile to separate, remains. This is nolonger relaxing!

Somehow I managed to buy the tomatoe plants from hell again this year. Giant plum tomatoes that are un-stakeable. They are like veggie ground cover.Sprawling everywhere, they compete with watermelon for space. Last year the watermelon lost. I had sworn to never buy them again. I either had a mind blurt when making up my tray at the Italian store or they jumped into my tray, knowing that they weren’t welcome; or an alien plot by the Plumet tomatoe race to conquer the earth—–not sure what happened there.  Such is the bounty of life. Another lesson in powerlessness…

My own thoughts about the word recovery are this; it doesn’t apply to me and my experience with serious and persistent mental illness. My belief is I will recover only at the desire of my Higher power; just like  alcoholism or diabetes.

My being is resilient. Like all living things, I am dynamic. I have the ability to grow and change as long as I am alive. I can learn to adapt to my environment and circumstances. I can have stable times and times of a re-occurrence of my symptoms. I can create, learn and adapt tools to assist me in reducing my perceived effects of the symptoms. I am resilient; the comeback kid. So are the survivors I know. It’s only natural.

At issue is that a persons adaptivity to environment as the spirit and mind tries to balance itself under the circumstances, is not often appreciated, validated or valued. If the environment holds out hope, holds the person in esteem, and nourishes the flagging spirit with acceptance and possibilities; action will occur. It’s only natural. Pat Deegan PHD., illustrates this concept in her “Coke and Smoke” article regarding her own life experience with being diagnosed with  Schizophrenia.   http://www.intentionalcare.org/articles/articles_trans.pdf pg.10,par.2

For me, resilience is  healing ; resilience is change; change is life. Recovery is an end product.

There is a movement going on across  the United States. The idea is that folks with mental illness’s including those that have severe and persistent diagnosis such as Schizophrenia or Bipolar (formally called manic depressive) can and do recover.

But what exactly does that mean?  Please join in to this important dialog.