The Seated View

To celebrate the first anniversary of Show Us Your Hands! as a non-profit, the Board of Directors is writing a series of blog posts about the past year. Each of us writes about a different topic, relevant to us as individuals, to the organization and to the community. We welcome your comments and hope you’ll share these posts with others to continue the conversation. Eduardo Flores, President, closes the report by taking the broader look at our goal of uniting the inflammatory arthritis community and what this means for the future of Show Us Your Hands! Two years ago this month, Show Us Your Hands! debuted as a collage of hundreds of hand photos of people who live with inflammatory arthritis. What was conceived as a visual tapestry of all different type of hands from around the world quickly grew into something larger. For some people, it was a step into a place where they could feel proud of their hands. For others, it was a way to share stories about all of the different t...

To celebrate the first anniversary of Show Us Your Hands! as a non-profit, the Board of Directors is writing a series of blog posts about the past year. Each of us writes about a different topic, relevant to us as individuals, to the organization and to the community. We welcome your comments and hope you’ll share these posts with others to continue the conversation. Today, Lene Andersen presents the first edition of our new feature Our Hands Can! — Community Stories. Modeled on our photo book , these are the stories of people living with inflammatory arthritis, their hands and their lives.   Working with Show Us Your Hands! is a joy. I get to spend time with people I like, doing something important. The photo book Our Hands Can ! is one of my favorite initiatives, combining our mission of raising awareness of inflammatory arthritis with our message of positivity and acceptance, of ourselves and each other. We all liked it so much that we decided to create a regular feature...

Greetings from the blog tour trail! I liked it so much the first time that I went on a virtual tour to celebrate the holidays. Several months ago, I met Kim P. Miller, author of Living with Juvenile Arthritis: A Parent's Guide .. We come at life with inflammatory arthritis from opposite directions. I've lived with juvenile arthritis since I was a child and she is the mother of two boys who have JA. Reading her blog is at once familiar and brand-new. So much has changed since I was a child with JA and yet, much as they the same, as well. When she asked me to do a guest post on what parents can do to help their children transition into adults, I jumped at the chance. We also decided to give away a copy of Your Life with Rheumatoid Arthritis: Tools for Managing Treatment, Side Effects and Pain. Deadline to enter is December 19. "I don’t remember a time before juvenile arthritis. The first symptoms appeared when I was four years old. For a long time, only two j...

To celebrate the first anniversary of Show Us Your Hands! as a non-profit, the Board of Directors is writing a series of blog posts about the past year. Each of us writes about a different topic, relevant to us as individuals, to the organization and to the community. We welcome your comments and hope you’ll share these posts with others to continue the conversation. Sallie Ferguson, Director of Fundraising, writes about how managing stress benefits Show Us Your Hands! and ourselves. She also shares exciting plans to expand in the new year.   Stress, me?  Never!   Ask all my friends and colleagues over the years and they will confirm that I am always serene and calm; nothing fazes me.    Or so we all thought. While the swan held her head serenely above the water, underneath the water level she was paddling fervently trying to keep her head above the water without knowing that she was in danger of drowning. Prior to my diagnosis of RA in mid 2012; ...

To celebrate the first anniversary of Show Us Your Hands! as a non-profit, the Board of Directors is writing a series of blog posts about the past year. Each of us writes about a different topic, relevant to us as individuals, to the organization and to the community. We welcome your comments and hope you’ll share these posts with others to continue the conversation. Today, Cathy Kramer , Director of Community Programs, recounts our recalibration as a team and an organization and for herself, and her personal life.   I am the mom to a very passionate 15 year old daughter who has always had the amazing gift of living in the moment. I have vivid memories of her stopping on winter walks to pick up snow and not just eat it, but experience it. I could sit all day and watch her with friends because I know in her mind that she is thinking of nothing else but that moment which she is in. Times like this I want to stop and take it all in. I want to experience life as my daughter. ...

To celebrate the first anniversary of Show Us Your Hands! as a non-profit, the Board of Directors is writing a series of blog posts about the past year. Each of us writes about a different topic, relevant to us as individuals, to the organization and to the community. We welcome your comments and hope you’ll share these posts with others to continue the conversation. In the first post, Jessica Murphy, Director of Communications, writes about empowerment and pride (part of our vision and values) and how acceptance has influenced her own journey towards acceptance. I n our first year as a non profit, defining our core organisational vision and values has been an important step towards developing our culture and objectives. We aimed to create a vision that captured the spirit and purpose of our organisation. Pride and Empowerment are central themes in our vision, and for me personally they are at the very core of my journey with inflammatory arthritis. We want people to see the po...

I’ve written before about living Under the Shoe , that pervasive sensation that any minute now, the other shoe will drop and everything you have will turn to ash. I’ve written before about how living in the moment and not planning ahead was an unlisted side effects of finding a medication that worked in getting my life back. And I’ve written before about how, at a certain point, I decided to trust it . To make plans for the future. To believe that even if this particular medication should stop being miraculous, there will be another one and therefore, it is safe to focus on life period, rather than a life that can be hijacked at any minute. And I thought I had it. Had convinced myself that I was in the groove, chugging along and bathing in this gorgeousness that is life with a medication that works. And I am. Every day. But it turns out that I am also very, very good at lying to myself. This year has been an ongoing learning experience on how to deal with stress and RA...