by Callie | Oct 16, 2017 | beautiful, chronic disease, chronic illness, creative, creativity, discouragement, encouragement, Grief, hope
I am currently enrolled in a course that is designed to help us ole bloggers improve our content and become more intentional writers, and in so doing, grow our following. My assignment today was to write a blog post about the core of what River and Quill is about. I...
by Callie | Oct 5, 2017 | chronic disease, chronic illness, discouragement, encouragement, Grief, hope
I ran into someone this week who asked me, “Are you sick?” I explained to her what was going on with my health, and I honestly didn’t mind talking about it. However, as I walked away from our conversation, I found myself with an unwelcomed feeling. I was unsettled,...
by Callie | Sep 28, 2017 | beautiful, chronic disease, chronic illness, creative, creativity, encouragement, hope
I have designed this blog to be a place of inspiration and hope. I want it to feel like you just sat down on the couch, in front of a fire, with your favorite drink, surrounded by a bunch of friends who want to help you through whatever you are going through. With...
by Callie | Sep 21, 2017 | beautiful, chronic disease, chronic illness, creative, creativity, hope
I quote from my big green book quite frequently on Instagram. I love this old book. I like to think that it was just waiting for me to find it, all these years, as it sat, in the second row of books, on the back wall, at the used book shop. It was published in...
by Callie | Sep 14, 2017 | chronic disease, chronic illness, creative, creativity, diagnosis, discouragement, encouragement, Grief, hope
After I came home from the “death session” (the cystoscopy which diagnosed Interstitial Cystitis), I found myself in a new predicament: I felt foreign; like an alien in my own skin. My thoughts were broadcasting in German, or Russian, or some sort of combination of...
by Callie | Aug 17, 2017 | chronic disease, chronic illness, parenting
Sometimes having a chronic disease is more than I can handle. Sometimes being a parent is more than I can handle. Sometimes doing both is like staying awake to watch a movie past ten o’clock in your thirties: impossible. I’m coming up on two years since IC...
by Callie | Aug 4, 2017 | beautiful, chronic disease, chronic illness, creative, creativity, hope, Uncategorized
Today I want to blubber about breakfast. I know it’s quite the detour from chronic illness support and my “youzhe“, but while eating breakfast in the Starbuck’s of our hotel in Nashville, as I glanced over and saw the disheveled family sitting near us, it dawned...
by Callie | Jul 20, 2017 | chronic disease, chronic illness, discouragement, encouragement, hope, Uncategorized
I’ve had a tough week inside my skull, a place I like to call my turtle shell. It’s a place I retreat to, especially when things are not so spiffy, and sometimes I catch my thoughts ricocheting off of every wall. After several months of minimal, almost zero symptoms,...
by Callie | Jul 15, 2017 | chronic disease, chronic illness, creative, creativity, hope, Uncategorized
My husband and I have lived in our house for four and a half years and I am finally painting our bedroom. I hate painting. I hate painting trim the most. I hate priming the trim even more. I was considering my dark feelings toward the process and I came to...
by Callie | Jul 13, 2017 | beautiful, chronic disease, chronic illness, creative, creativity, diagnosis, discouragement, encouragement, Grief, hope, Uncategorized
It seems obvious, but half of the terrible things you go through as someone with a chronic disease are caused by other people. And that’s sad. Rather sad. Ruthlessly sad. One should not have to prove their pain, and yet, most of us with chronic disease have had...
