{"id":13055,"date":"2010-12-23T08:01:41","date_gmt":"2010-12-23T13:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=13055"},"modified":"2015-12-27T15:47:26","modified_gmt":"2015-12-27T20:47:26","slug":"dear-santa-will-you-please-take-this-diabetes-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=13055","title":{"rendered":"Dear Santa, Will You Please Take This Diabetes Away?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>I wrote this on my blog <a href=\"http:\/\/www.diabetesstories.com\/stories_blog\/\" target=\"_blank\">DiabetesStories<\/a> three Christmases ago and it still makes me laugh. Happy Holidays.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Dear Santa,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">All I&#8217;d like this Christmas is for you to take this diabetes away.  I&#8217;m so tired of it already. All the time stabbing my fingers for blood  and guessing when my sugar&#8217;s too high or too low.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Now that I&#8217;m in menopause I can barely tell whether I&#8217;m sweating  because I&#8217;m losing estrogen or because my blood sugar&#8217;s crashing at 50!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">And, can we talk&#8230; I mean the constant figuring out how many carbs  are in a ravioli or bread stick or that fried calamari that will be at  the company Christmas party. Some days I just want to lie down and shoot  myself. Please, please, Santa, would you take this diabetes away?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sincerely,<br \/>\nRiva<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Dear Riva,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I&#8217;m very sorry you&#8217;re having a tough time during my favorite season. I  only want people to be singing carols and drinking eggnog and feeling  good cheer. Unfortunately, it says in my contract that I&#8217;m not allowed  to interfere with life&#8217;s natural occurrences. So here&#8217;s my suggestion:  although you&#8217;ve already opened your holiday gifts, go back and look  under your Hanukkah bush for the gift in having diabetes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">You may have to spend a few days looking, so why don&#8217;t you schedule  it for the week between Christmas and New Year&#8217;s while you have some  down time? Then you can start the new year fresh.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Best wishes,<br \/>\nSanta and the gang<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***<\/p>\n<p>Dear Santa,<\/p>\n<p>A gift in my diabetes? What are you, crazy? Meshuggah? Thanks, but no thanks!<\/p>\n<p>Riva<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Dear Rabbi,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I seek your wise counsel. I wrote to Santa to take away my diabetes,  but he wasn&#8217;t helpful at all. Surely you who have studied so much and  represent our people who have suffered throughout history can help me  with this awful diabetes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It&#8217;s such a strain, Rabbi. I have to test my blood sugar when I  really want to be lighting the sabbath candles. I forgot all about the  High Holy Days this year because I was so busy counting carbs in the  Challah, bagels and honey cake.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rabbi, please, what solace can you offer me? What words of wisdom?  Surely you would tell me to just forget about this diabetes thing and  study the Torah, right?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Please write soon,<br \/>\nRiva<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Dear Riva,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Santa and I just returned from the Caribbean, and he told me about  your difficulty. He said he told you to look for the gift in your  diabetes. I concur with Santa; there are many gifts to be found in  diabetes, if you look. For one, my child, you won&#8217;t have to drink the  traditional Manishewitz holiday wine anymore. The Counsel all agree that  it is much too sweet. Bring out the Chardonnay!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">When Santa asks you to look for a gift in your diabetes, he is not  saying this because you are not Catholic and he is not bringing you  anything, although this is true. He is speaking like our brothers the  Buddhists, who profess that there is a gift in everything if you look  for something positive that it can bring into your life.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Let me tell you a story, my child. My own Aunt Sheila had diabetes,  and after she stopped kvetching, she went to a spa and learned how to  eat healthfully. She shopped along Rodeo Drive and bought a cute little  jogging outfit and started running. On her jog along the ocean she met  her fourth husband, Marvin, and they&#8217;re very happy. They just moved into  a $6 million mansion in Jupiter, Fla. &#8212; right next to Burt Reynolds!  Everyone&#8217;s plotzing! Granted, the house was in foreclosure, but that  only means they have more money to decorate!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Darling girl, find a gift in your diabetes, because to be honest,  since you&#8217;re not orthodox, and all I have are these great wigs I got on  sale from my cousin Schlomo, I&#8217;m not bringing you anything, either. And  really, it&#8217;s not very pleasant to whine.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Shabbat Shalom<br \/>\nRabbi, Local Union 107<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Dear Rabbi,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I thought about what you and Santa said and have decided to become a  Buddhist. I picked up the Dalai Lama&#8217;s book, &#8220;The Art of Happiness.&#8221; He  says, &#8220;Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just  beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight  upon you.&#8221; I told my friend Joe I like butterflies, and I like the robe,  so these aren&#8217;t bad gifts.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Joe said the quote meant that we are the source of our happiness,  that happiness can only come from inside us, regardless of what happens  in our lives. Hmm, I said, maybe I need to learn more. So I booked a  flight to Tibet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Now if only I didn&#8217;t have to drag all this damn diabetes stuff with me&#8230;. ohm&#8230; ohm&#8230; oy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Riva<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I wrote this on my blog DiabetesStories three Christmases ago and it still makes me laugh. Happy Holidays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":53098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1501],"tags":[438,1020],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.9 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Christmas Post: Dear Santa, Will You Please Take This Diabetes Away?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"All I&#039;d like this Christmas is for you to take this diabetes away. 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