A quick reminder: if you ‘buy’ the Kindle version, you can get the audiobook (narrated by her!!!) for only $7.49! How cool is it to have the author herself interpret it for you? (Check a sample here).
I’ve had multiple sclerosis for literally half my life – I turn 49 this year! When I was diagnosed at 24, after the time it took to have a complete meltdown and fight my way back, I used to volunteer doing all the active things I could: the MS Walk, the WAMS luncheon, traveling around the state of Colorado to speak about my MS experience.
In the past few years I have had to slow down. A lot. Such is the case with this disease and with aging in general, although I’d like to register a complaint about how ass-backward this is! Why should we develop all this knowledge in and appreciation of this life just in time to break a hip? Sadistic, that’s all.
Anyway, I digress. When we moved to San Diego? I found this fantastic new organization within the National MS Society called MS Friends. This organization allows those of us who have MS and might have been slowed down a little bit with MS, to still volunteer and stay involved with the association. For 4 hours a week I man this helpline to talk to callers who also have MS.
I also have four years of experience on a domestic and sexual abuse hotline, where the calls I was fielding at that time were much more often a life-or-death situation than I’ve experienced through Friends, but both jobs have something in common: everyone I talk to is under stress. Whether the people who call the Friends helpline just to vent about their latest flare up, or in the case of the hotline, a beating or an assault or self-destructive thoughts, the stress level fluctuates from simmering to titanic. The mental health of the callers and that of that of the volunteers answering the call are under stress, but the connections are so, so important.
For this day, then, World Mental Health Day, I’m putting out a call to everyone who reads this post:
Do something for your own peace of mind: listen to your favorite song, call your best friend. Then do someone to help someone else’s outlook: smile at a stranger, hold a door open, volunteer a little bit of your time. Listen. Find your gratitude. It’s good for your mental health!
http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/31-tips-boost-your-mental-health
https://uhs.umich.edu/tenthingshttps://uhs.umich.edu/tenthingsI’d love to hear what you think! Until then, Stay Mystified!Kelley
Down in the Belly of the Whale
Check our review for the book, Down in the Belly of the Whale!Purchase Links
(hopefully all editions will be available together once the book is released... :-))
https://www.instagram.com/kelkay1202/
About the Author
Kelley Kay Bowles is the pen name for the YA fiction of Kelley Bowles Gusich. Kelley taught high school English and Drama for twenty years in Colorado and California, but a 1994 MS diagnosis has (circuitously) brought her, finally, to the life of writer and mother, both occupations she adores, and both of which were dreamed of clear back at stories surrounding her Barbie and Ken. Her debut novel, cozy mystery Death by Diploma (pen name Kelley Kaye),was released by Red Adept Publishing February 2016, and is first in the Chalkboard Outlines® series. Book 2, Poison by Punctuation, was just released. Down in the Belly of the Whale is her first traditionally published YA novel, and she’s currently working on a paranormal series with a working name THE MELD. She has two wonderful and funny sons, and an amazing husband who cooks for her. She lives in Southern California.
Kelley is active on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and GoodReads. Her website is www.kelleykaybowles.com where she aspires to blog once per week.
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