Diabetes Awareness Month is almost over, closing out on November 30th. Throughout the month, I’ve watched some really inspiring efforts take flight to raise awareness for diabetes, including the Project Blue November campaign. Project Blue November has been a big part of my Facebook feed throughout the month, showcasing photos of advocates and celebrities alike sporting their blue circle pin.
My blue circle pin is something I wear every time I’m out in public. I have one that I take on-and-off whatever jacket I’m wearing and a one permanently stuck on the bookbag I use when I’m traveling.
I don’t spend the majority of my days on a diabetes advocacy soapbox, but having that pin on me at all times makes me feel like I’m wearing a teeny Bat-Signal of advocacy. It sends out a signal that I love someone (many someones) with diabetes. It’s a beacon for broken islets. It’s a sign that I care about the community as a whole.
Every month is diabetes month when you live with it. This disease is every day, every month, all year long without respite. But it’s not a “woe is me” headgame. It’s more a “keep going; life is worth the effort” sort of mentality.
This month has been more scattered than usual, and I felt like I kind of phoned it in for diabetes month. My focus was on other things, other people, other events and honestly? That break felt good. I think when the focus is “supposed to be diabetes,” I lose steam. (File it under “Don’t Tell Me What To Do,” which might be the biggest file in my mental cabinet.) Advocacy has to feel right, and natural, and not forced for me. Finding my footing sometimes requires a few weeks of mental quiet.
I’ll keep my pin on. And when I’m ready to raise my voice again, I’ll do just that. In the meantime, I need to feel comfortable with whatever level of storytelling and sharing fits my need, regardless of the month or awareness initiative.
Where did you get your pin? I tried to find them online without any luck.
[…] Over the last few weeks, my life has been busy in ways that have nothing to do with diabetes. I’ve been outside logging miles on the running trails, as this is my favorite time of year to run outside. I have a new, comfortable routine of waking up before the rest of my family and making a pot of coffee, then reading blogs and emails while single-handedly killing the pot of coffee. (Which means, by the time everyone else wakes up, I’m completely lit.) We moved to a new town, I’ve been on the road for work, I’ve been investing myself in friendships and family, and I’m trying to spend more time talking to people I love instead of Tweeting into the abyss. I made a conscious decision to pull back from the Internet and rethink how I felt about advocacy, especially in the wake of, for me, a less-than-fulfilling Diabetes Month. […]