Many Hands Make Light Work

I recently submitted my first piece of art in a competition for The Canadian Pain Society! It’s admittedly small potatoes – I’m not winning a scholarship or anything, I’m not even sure there is a physical prize – but it was a huge accomplishment for me and one that I’m excited to share with you.

It’s a big deal for three reasons. One, I have a six month old child. That I managed to create something and submit it on time while caring for this beautiful ball of energy is reason to celebrate on its own.

Second, doing art work in my current state can be quite challenging. Sitting for long stretches and looking down at paper is tough on the neck. I’ve been working hard on pacing in all the things I do: chores, errands, creative work, physical activity. But it’s hard to break that creative flow once I get into something! I’m proud that I was able to pace myself with this piece (mostly) and that I was able to finish it on time.

The final reason is that, as I’ve mentioned in previous articles, extreme anxiety has a tendency to stop me from sharing personal work for fear of failure or embarrassment. Submitting this art piece (and not anonymously either!) is for me another step towards embracing my creativity and sharing all parts of my story.

You can vote!

I’m pretty sure you can vote for you favorite art piece, but am waiting for more information. I’ll post a link as soon as it comes out! I am of course biased in asking you to vote for my piece, but I hope you check out all of the pieces and vote for your favourite. All of the people who submitted took the time to tell their unique stories of living with pain and deserve your attention.

The submission required a write up to accompany the art piece to help explain the meaning. Check it out below, as submitted.

Many Hands Make Light Work

This piece speaks to the hope for more team-based care in our health care system. In my journey with chronic pain, I have been carved into pieces by every medical and health professional I sought care from, particularly in those systems that limit your visit to a single inquiry for the allotted minutes of care.

Having to choose which parts of me got attention and which had to wait created this constant tug of war in my mind, forcing me to have to decide which parts felt the worst and deserved attention. When in reality, every piece of me needed to be assessed. And the most important part, the one that was never inquired about, but that required the most attention of all, was my mind.

Since finally acknowledging all of the pieces of me and advocating for whole-self care, I feel hope once more that I may find relief, or at least, acceptance, of a life with pain. The many hands in this piece are all of the practitioners from physical therapists, medical doctors, holistic healers, to trauma counsellors that have helped in my efforts to put the pieces of me back together. I intentionally kept the piece as a black and white sketch to illustrate the simplicity of the concept of team-based care. There are some parts that will be simple to solve once the right hands and minds come together, and others that will require more investigations and care, but having the right hands involved and removing the barriers to accessing those hands is the action that will help us to move forward.