HWAMC Day 1, Let's Go!

Happy April, and welcome to a month of posts prompted by Wego Health's HAWMC --Health Activist Writer's Month Challenge.
April is a challenging month, no doubt; it always seems slammed and flooded with work. And yet, for the second year in a row, here I am.
Today's kickoff prompts:

• Why you write – tell us a little bit about why you write about your health online and what got you started.
• Why HAWMC? This is our third year of the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge – why did you get involved this year? Are you a newbie to #HAWMC or a veteran?

Yes, and there's the nub of it. "Why do I write about my health online" presumes I do write about it.
I have written about it with diffidence, saying I'm not sure I "should" write about it. I have not-written about it, declaring that I wished I were writing about it.
I have been urged not to write about it by friends fearing for my career prospects and the stigmas associated with my conditions.
I have been urged to write about it, to be a voice for others with the conditions, bringing my own special relationship with words to illuminate the experience and allow others to see what it is.
I have been urged to write about it for my own salvation, to save me from my prayer for oblivion.
I have been urged not to write about it because these conditions are part of the myth of the medical model and writing about them would be using my abilities to kow-tow to this model, like in Orwell's 1984, let alone taking the meds.
I have been urged not to write about it because writing about it confirms my identity under these labels when I should be moving away from all that and seeing myself a different way,

These last two urgings, ironically, may in fact be part of why I do write. Disbelief in the medical model and medications, and fear of identity-based-on-diagnosis informed my decisions for most of my life. At last, I'm here to testify that those things all have their place.
I feel a bit like an ex-vegan. I've come across a few of those on my travels, including an unbelievable number in Hawaii. All of them are eager to tell you chapter and verse on why it's so better not being vegan, even if you had never known them in their vegan days. Having abandoned a conviction they held so tenaciously, they are still justifying to themselves--and thus aloud in a high voice--the rightness of their apostacy.

I'm not an ex-vegan, and I didn't hold my disbelief in the medical model so passionately. I'm afraid I've never held passionately to any conviction, and I may be beginning to understand why. I don't speak much about my conversion, although I'm glad to tell all to anyone who wants to know. Readiness to tell anyone who wants to know, anyone afraid to accept care from this quarter, is one crucial reason I write, and should encourage me to write for a wider audience. Which may be precisely what I'm about to do with my MFA thesis. One thing I do mention here with some regularity, though, is the saving grace of a certain simple ionic salt compound. 

Rock (lithium), Earth (carbon), Air (-ate (=three oxygen molecules)). Not manufactured in a lab. 
I'll readily share how much it helps me because it truly opened my eyes. Opened my eyes to the concept that meds could help. Opened my eyes to a whole universe of human interaction I'd never been able to see before.
Final thought: the fact it helps so much suggests there is something to be helped. That can be so, whether or not one chooses to hang an identity on it.

A Challenge for Bliss

I love the idea of blogger challenges, which bring likeminded writers together, are directed toward a specific and uplifting goal, and provide some focus for the blog. However, I haven't undertaken them very often, usually because I think I'm too busy.

Now, we know that I'm currently "overextended" and ridiculously busy beyond the usual. It also wouldn't be too much of a secret that my emotional/mental poise has been seriously wonky lately. On the other hand, this challenge only requires one post per week, and I have posted so many times about my desire to have my blogging practice help me become a better person overall.

And so...I'm going to participate in Bliss Connect's "Six Weeks of Bliss" Challenge. I'm late to enter this, but I've given thought and decided that I wouldn't be out of integrity to pursue the theme of bliss even when struggling with mood issues.

This week's Challenge is to talk about why we started blogging, and who inspired (inspires) us the most.

The Why
I was very clear about why I started blogging: it was because I wanted to participate. I wanted to add my voice to wide-ranging discussions about the topics dearest to my heart. Initially, I wrote a lot about health issues, high raw food diet. Then, as now, I also wrote about our lifestyle in a small cabin on the very edge of a bluff in Alaska. The constantly changing and wild scenery is always an inspiration to share, with times of green profusion, and times of ice pans.

I still write about those things. However, in my blog, as in the rest of my life, I struggle to maintain laser -pointed focus on just one issue. Outside of my passion for healthy living, I'm a poet and a writer: these elements of my identity are key. More and more, I'm wanting to talk about exciting literature I've read, poets I've listened to, what happened at my writing group today.

"Ulterior Harmony" refers to a quotation by the Presocratic philosopher Heraclitus. He said that the underlying harmony is more powerful than the obvious one. As my life path continues on its rollercoaster, this search for ulterior harmony underlies all that I do, so long as I remember.

The Who of Inspirations
I've shared several posts dedicated to bloggers that have inspired me. See, for example, this one about the Pure2Raw Twins, this one about Gena, or this one for Lori. The whole month of posts on Self Love in September 2010 were definitely inspired by Tina, who curated the series.

However, there are a few other inspirations who deserve mention. Joanna Steven, with her piercing intelligence, tireless research and deep humaneness, was so generous in her communication with me when I was first thinking of starting a blog, and definitely helped me to decide to go ahead with the project. Amber of Almost Vegan Chef and Barbara of Rawfully Tempting are people whom I've watched blossom on their blogs in a truly inspirational way--rising stars. (And by the way, Barbara's currently hosting a giveaway for Medicine Flower Flavor Extracts, which I've talked about on here before and which I love, and Amber's also hosting a giveaway--actually multiple giveaways this month. Today's is a beautiful eBook).

Unfortunately, she had to discontinue her blog, but "Bitt" of "Bittofraw" was another huge inspiration, for her passion, her culinary wizardry and her frank but brave discussion of health issues.

There are various literary blogs that I read too, but the one that stands out is Being Poetry, the online home of my real-life friend Erin. I'm in awe both of her and of her poetry, and always find something to admire on her blog too.

Well, I'll leave it at that for now, although I know --please share your inspirations with me! And I think it's working: I'm feeling all lovely and grateful now.