Welcome to ‘Reflections Of A Bear’

Hi! I’m Sarah.
I’m a 30-something year old bear/girl who spends a lot of time thinking deeply.

I live in a small rural town in NSW, Australia with my wonderful husband ‘Mr Happy’ (aka Dan) and my Kelpie dog (a girl named Bob… don’t ask… my husband named her).

I love card making, music, books, hammocks, and that quiet stillness inside of the rainforest.

Chronic illness is a big part of my life. I have dysautonomia (POTS – Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome & NCS – Neurocardiogenic Syncope), Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS), and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, among other things. I’ve been sick since I was 14, so this is my ‘normal’.

Writing is a wonderful way to organise your thoughts. Heartfelt thanks go to my parents who shared with me their love of reading, writing and language.

My two blogging inspirations are:
Michelle, over at Living With Bob
and Rachel, from The Chronicles of Rach

Big thanks to Rachel for pushing me out of the nest and encouraging me to try out my blogging wings.

Want to read some of my writing?
My post called Why do I blog? is probably the best place to start .
But you can find all my posts by clicking on the menu links at the top of the page. Up there you’ll find links to my blog posts,  my infographic series, and my comic series. Happy reading!

xx S.

26 thoughts on “Welcome to ‘Reflections Of A Bear’”

  2. Woooohoooo! Welcome to the blogosphere Sarah! You can fly, girl!
    I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your work and I am beyond thrilled that you have decided to take the plunge and begin blogging. You’ll wonder why it took you so long 😉
    I’m so impressed that you jumped into the blogging life. You’ll love it!

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    1. Hello and welcome! I’m still a very new blogger – I’ve only been blogging here since August! I started off by writing guest posts for a friend’s blog for a few months, and then I decided to dive in and start my own.

      I love your blog title 🙂
      I’m sad that you’re indisposed and undiagnosed though – that sucks. Sending gentle hugs, and popping over to check our your blog! ❤

      xx S.

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      1. Oooh exciting! Well I am happy that you have decided to write one of your own. It is really a great experience.
        It helps with the healing process.
        Oh thank you so much. I wrote it when I was undiagnosed. I have a partial diagnosis, but it is still very… uncertain. I guess invisible illness is quite uncertain in general.
        So glad to have another one in the community! ❤

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      2. Yes, I assumed you probably had some kind of diagnosis by now 🙂 But even if you were currently 100% sure what you have, the fact that you were once sick, but had no idea what you had, super sucks. I’ve been there, and it’s awful :/

        Yes, writing is very cathartic! My very first blog post, ‘Dear Dysautonomia’, was written in response to my friend’s letter to her illness. It’s what sparked my love of blogging. I wrote that… and then I couldn’t stop writing!

        So glad to *meet* you. Thanks for commenting, so I could say hi!

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      3. You are so lucky to have someone that knew you well and pushed you to do this. I am happy you did also. I will have to take my time going through your posts, so I apologise if you get heaps of notifications!
        I am trying to catch up with everyone’s news (:
        Happy to *meet* you too and look forward to reading more! x

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      4. Oh, there is NO such thing as too many comments! I always feel honoured when someone responds to something I’ve written 🙂

        That’s the best part – the blogging was the start of our friendship! Before that, I didn’t really know her at all, she was just another lady in my chronic illness group. But she helped me grow my blogging wings, and then gently started nudging me out of the nest. I’m very grateful for her friendship ❤

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  5. Hello, dear Bear! I shared your blog with some of my friends (They’re not on WP, though, unfortunately) and they fell in love with you just like I did! We all think your blog is beautiful! ❤ We're thinking about talking to our teachers to organize a school assembly to spread awareness about Dysautonomia. Would it be okay if we mention your blog there?

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    1. Bear can’t talk right now, because he’s sitting in the corner making snuffly noises.
      He was so overwhelmed by your lovely words that he burst into tears, and I had to placate him with a bowl of strawberries. ❤

      But I can tell you that sharing Bear's blog is absolutely okay! When people like Bear's blog, it makes us happy. But when people share Bear's blog with other people, that makes us so flickering lightbulb excited! ^_^

      ("Flickering lightbulb" is one of the things that a receptor says in this blog post: https://reflectionsofabear.com/2015/09/14/warning-warning-sensory-overload/ . One of my friends thought it was a hilarious phrase, and so we use when we're excited, instead of using rude words unbecoming of a well-mannered Bear).

      We love it when people share our work because a) that means they must *really* like it and b) it means more people get to hear about Dysautonomia, and invisible, chronic illnesses! Yay!

      xx S.

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      2. Bear has stopped crying, because I just told him that you’ve published Chapter 2!

        Now he’s dancing.
        Watching a Bear try to dance is hilarious.

        Uh oh.
        Bear tripped over his own feet, and faceplanted on the loungeroom floor. Now he’s going to sulk.

        Ha! Except he’s distracted by the strawberry lying on the floor right in front of his nose. He must have dropped it before without noticing. Tantrum avoided!

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    1. *one paw slowly emerges from beneath the blankets…waves feebly…then disappears again*

      (Bear is okay – just very, very tired. We had some blood tests yesterday, and we’re hoping they’ll show an easily fixable reason for our worsening fatigue. It’s been more than six months since we were last able to blog! 😥 Bear misses it SO MUCH! But hopefully we’ll be back soon…)

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