Creating a creative life, with Fibromyalgia

Well, if you were waiting for the next installment of my last post, my apologies. It seems like my last great wave of  brilliance and blogging enthusiasm was 5 years ago..how sad, but I've been living over at short-attention-span FaceBook (..or as my brother calls it, A**Book.)

I am getting frustrated with the incessant "liking" of things and responding in short bursts. Today I feel like writing about my non-making of art for the last few years... 
Years ago, following an accident that injured my back, I started having cycles of fatigue and physical pain that seemed random, and merely annoying...but around 6 years ago, they became more frequent and severe...their appearance became chaotic..sometimes mimicking sprains, joint problems-- and doctors who were sure they knew what what going on, started looking at me like I was a looney or a junkie when diagnostics didn't match the pain I "claimed" to have..then came IBS flares, arm tremors (lots of fun when handing papers across a conference table).. embarrassing, sporadic  memory loss....muscle spasms in my legs and back that rotate my pelvis out of position.

I felt increasingly hopeless, until an insightful surgeon realized that something else was going on-- I jumped and screamed when touched on a spot that should not have hurt at all. Many,many expensive tests later I got the diagnosed of "Fibromyalgia syndrome" from a Rheumatoligist ,who then told me that his group did not treat patients with Fibromyalgia. Thanks,Universe.

So my journey began in trying to find information, clinical trial outcomes, support groups. I've gone through the stages of grief over and over, while trying to accept the new me, the one who can't do some of the things I love easily or at all; trying to define and focus on what I can do, and cherish the days when  the gift of energy is mine. I have gone through a time of life chaos, hanging on by fingertips as my self-image and my home/art space also slipped into chaos, and I abandoned all dreams of a creative life to pain.

I am luckier than many with this syndrome...I still can work and earn a living, although that means there is little physical or emotional energy left for anything else; I cannot take many of drugs pushed on TV and still work ,drive..and think.
So,this is my new mission and focus: trying to believe in myself as an artist trying to begin creating art again...and redefine what that means as I struggle with physical limitations, and my sadness about  that loss.

Thinking About Art in the Library

For my whole professional life, I have folded the Arts into "what I do for a Living." What I do for a living is to be a Librarian and an advocate for the rights of young people to have freedom of access to whatever information or pleasure reading they need... ok, truth be told--after a long career in Youth Services...these days I am more of a manager. I no longer do storytimes or Young Adult work( unless the happy circumstance of staff shortage allows me to once again "play" for a living,) but I like to think that I contribute to the greater good by making time and resources available to the up-and-coming Youth Services librarians I now supervise and mentor.

My lifelong passion has always been Art. My "ninja librarianship" role has always been to enhance and extend the literary experience of a great storytelling session with the physical act of creating some small art expression (usually a craft) that will reinforce the story themes, thereby reinforcing the literary experience.there

Lately, I have been reading a lot in education materials about the role of Art in language development and in enhancing learning in general. A lot of what Youth Services Librarians and teachers instinctively knew has, in recent years, been supported by research that shows Art enhances learning. There also have been articles written about the importance of incorporating the vocabluary of the arts into language development.

This has got me thinking: What is missing in Youth Services Librarianship regarding the formalization of art experiences as pivotal in enhancing not only language development, but also in stimulating learning in many areas of the brain?

Youth Services Librarians almost always utilize theme-related crafts, music, dance, or other activities to reinforce the literature themes shared in a storytime. What if we formalized this with the same sort of approach that art teachers are now taking in pressing the incorporation of arts-awareness into many curriculum areas? There is now a plethora of documentations regarding the learning enhancements in using multiple art techniques in language development, as well as in enhancement in many other areas of learning.

In coming posts, I will explore my thoughts on how this can be easily applied and implemented in traditional library literature ("Storytime") experiences.