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Learning How to Walk Again: Barbara’s Story

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By Barbara Leonhard | Featured Contributor

[Part 1 – Hope Was Not a Loss: A Story About Measles Encephalitis]

My experience with measles encephalitis taught me a great deal. The greatest realization was that I could change my destiny. I had every reason to remain in the wheelchair because of the attention, sympathy, and love that not only I but also my parents received because of their poor little girl. But the attention from others could not offset the loneliness, the feelings of being diminutive and helpless, and the boredom.

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Loved Within

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“Having compassion starts and ends with having compassion for all those unwanted parts of ourselves.

The healing comes
from letting there be room
for all of this to happen:
room for grief,
for relief,
for misery,
for joy.”

-Pema Chödrön

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You are beautiful. You are loved.
You are worth it.
Wishing everyone a blessed day.
💚

A Gift of Moments

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“No matter how we think the future might be,
it always seems to work itself out.
Life is made of moments.
Learn to appreciate each moment.
Each moment is a fresh opportunity to be happy.
This moment is your change to walk in love with others.
Today is a gift to enjoy and to rejoice. 

We only have to teach ourselves to love the journey
and not the destination.” 

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Wishing you all a most blessed day.
💙

Hope Was Not a Loss: A Story About Measles Encephalitis

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By Barbara Leonhard | Featured Contributor

In this article, I would like to share my story of how an illness I suffered as a child affected me. Particularly with the climate of today, I hope this will help inform people of the consequences that can develop in young children who are at risk of getting certain illnesses.

It was the summer of 1958, and it seemed to have happened all at once, where I turned from an active six-year-old girl to a helpless baby overnight. At that time, my family was living in Lewistown, Montana, where my dad was a Presbyterian minister. Mom was at home with three children, aged seven to four. That summer, all three of us contracted measles. But while my siblings’ illnesses took a more benign course, I developed a life-threatening complication: measles encephalitis—a serious and potentially fatal inflammation of the brain that can occur either during the rash phase of measles or following the illness itself.

I have often contemplated my own battle with measles encephalitis…because it did indeed nearly kill me.

Continue reading “Hope Was Not a Loss: A Story About Measles Encephalitis”