My Life Works Today hosts Sara & Despite Lupus

[Carolyn, Director]

Friday, May 29, 2009
Despite Lupus spotlight

Check out this great lupus site when you get the chance: My Life Works Today. MLWT hosted a guest writer event this month on their blog, and extended the invitation to Despite Lupus. How fun! The short interview with yours truly appears on Sunday, May 31st and will be up for a few days. Don't miss it!

Want to know a little bit more about MLWT? Here you go, directly from their website:

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Our mission is to inspire individuals who are living with all forms of lupus and lupus-related illnesses by being a strong resource of opportunities reflecting the potential and well-being of our Oregon and SW Washington communities.

It is important to believe in our own abilities when managing our lives with S.L.E., otherwise referred to as lupus. Although it is still incurable at this time, it is possible to create a great life and not just view it as a sentence to be served. Lupus is a part of who we are, but not the only part and it is vital that individuals are offered resources to help them “get beyond” lupus to see their potentials that await them. As a means of supporting individuals to succeed in their wellness management, we designed this program to offer specific educational workshops, supportive resources and a social network made up of other local individuals who are also committed to designing their own self-care.

By utilizing the abundance of information already present through the internet, written media, existing programs and the participants themselves, MLWT gathers this information and creates a learning satellite community for individuals to draw inspiration from. Rather than reinventing the wheel, we are aiming to become a ‘local’ network hub for individuals to rely on as they strengthen their support ties and create personalized, self-directed resources. In the process, this program creates an on-going, action research format where the participants themselves will be instrumental in community education and health care reform by simply living well. The information, suggestions, questions and requests MLWT receives from you will help educate local social and medical service providers in working with you as you pursue your wellness goals.

We also offer information, discussion groups and presentations for the others in our lives such as family, friends, employers and co-workers so that they may gain a much clearer understanding of what they can do to provide us the support we need to be successful. Self-reliance is important and strengthening our networks, in turn, strengthens us and our healing capacities.

Note from Carolyn...one of our long time members is the owner of MLWT and we highly recommend her group for those on the north west coast. She can guide and direct you to answers that you've been searching for.

[ORmaria]

Hey there,
I realized that you are fans of Sara and her book Despite Lupus, but I forgot to mention the virtual book discussion she is doing with us here at MLWT!

We are testing the idea of chatting with authors via online for book discussions and this month's book is Sara's. We have placed this discussion opportunity on many neworks, as well as offered it on our websites (both MLWT and Sara's). I will check here to see if any of you want to throw anything into the chat without having to sign up for the other networks or go all over the web. Your comments here will get cut and pasted for her to see, reply to and posted for you to view her response. This conversation with her is primarily on Shelfari.com and you can view the ongoing discussion from here (http://tinyurl.com/yakflt4). The other networks include WeAreLupus.org, MCTDLupus and Ardent Celebrations (both are Ning Communities). Finally, you can comment on her website directly at ( http://tinyurl.com/yffghgs ) and/or through our website at ( http://tinyurl.com/yj26n3m).

The discussion is wide open, as some of you haven't read her book yet. If you have, throw in your two cents on what you thought of it. If you haven't, don't let that hold you back on asking her questions or telling her about what your experiences are giving you with regards to insights or challenges. She is also offering to discuss the publishing process, if you have any hopes of writing a book yourself someday!

Let's show Sara we appreciate her time out form her book touring and stop by to at least say hello and introduce yourself as another person living well~ despite lupus!