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CF Warrior — what does that mean?
“Warrior” is a word used frequently in the CF community and chronic illness community at large. And when I look at the individuals and families fighting this disease, warrior seems to be a very fitting term. The battles fought against this disease are strenuous, harrowing and all to often, entirely unfair.
But even though I fight many of the same battles, I don’t think of myself as a warrior. In fact, it makes me a little uncomfortable when someone uses that term to describe me. There is a dissonance there. I don’t feel like a warrior. I don’t always handle this disease gracefully and, oftentimes, I don’t feel very strong.
Maybe that’s precisely what it means to be a warrior — to keep fighting even when you’re scared or weak.
What are your thoughts on all this? Do you consider yourself a CF warrior? If you’re like me and the term makes you uncomfortable, why do you think that is?
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1 Reply
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No, I don’t resonate with this terminology. I don’t want to fight, let alone be in war, with anything or anyone, certainly not with my own body. It sounds like a lot of effort and lost energy. Besides, how do I know which strategy to follow? When to cheer, when to attack or retreat, when to feel victorious or defeated? I really wouldn’t, it’s much too complex for that.
I consider every thing to be Nature and One, and it is not about fighting but about balance and cooperation. I try to consider the whole process always, and then balance and harmony are the key words that are my guideline. Sometimes nature may seem like a battle field to us with our belligerent mind. But when you look closely, it is much more like a process in which forms constantly turn into other forms and this turns out to be for the good of the whole, there is always a higher purpose to it. Much more than we can see or understand.
So even zoomed in to the body level, there is a very complex and basically unknowable harmony going on, with or without so called “disease” (which is a concept), nature is always making the most of it. Certainly it seems that sometimes we need to intervene with our modern medicine, and for the individual that could turn out well in some cases; but even in those cases, on the whole we don’t know what we are doing to the balance on a large scope. So we have to be very modest and careful with any intervention.
If we assume the identity of the warrior, this is probably not conducive to this. It’s better to take the position (if any) of a caregiver or provider. I try to care for my body, as well as possible, for its common and its special needs. So I don’t fight my “disease”, I care for it. I strongly feel this is a reciprocal process.
In practice this means taking as little as possible medication, spreading the effects of cf as broadly as possible over the entire body, eating healthy food, having enough rest and sleep, avoiding stress, having a lot of laughs every day and be joyfully myself as much as possible. And I try to be in the mind as little as possible too. I strongly believe in the (healing) power of Now. In the now there is no war, there is the natural balance that is common to our entire experience of existence.
So, not a warrior or soldier be, rather a natural equilibrist.
May grace be with you.
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