Shawna Barnes

Myasthenia gravis (MG) has taken plenty from me — strength, stamina, the ability to pretend I’m fine when I’m absolutely not. But here’s the twist nobody expects: Some of the things MG yanked out of my life were things I should’ve tossed years ago. MG may be a thief, but sometimes it steals the junk. These are the top three losses I don’t miss one bit. Before MG, I treated exhaustion like a moral failing. If I wasn’t hustling, grinding, or pushing past my limits, I assumed I was slacking.

There’s a strange quiet that settles over a house when two people who usually move in tandem suddenly have to live on opposite sides of it. My husband has been fighting off a nasty head and chest cold. The kind with heavy coughing and congestion that rattles the walls and fills two shopping bags full of snot-filled tissues in an afternoon. Meanwhile, I’ve been doing my best to care for him without getting close enough to catch it myself.

I celebrated Independence Day a little differently this year. While the rest of the country lit fireworks, grilled burgers, and gathered with friends, I quietly celebrated a different kind of freedom — the kind that comes from choosing a new path when the one you’re on stops serving you. Last week, my book “Barrier-Free Web Design” officially went live on Amazon. It’s available in paperback and ebook formats. Soon, I will have an audiobook version that I am starting to narrate.