You owe no one…

You owe no one.

You owe no one involvement in diabetes awareness activities.

You owe no one Twitter fury and outrage when diabetes is misrepresented.

You owe no one a decision to jump on a bandwagon just because everyone else is. 

You owe no one your loud voice, your quiet voice, your whispered voice.

You own no one involvement in their diabetes advocacy efforts.

You owe no one blue eye shadow, blue nail polish or blue hairspray.

You owe no one reminders that diabetes doesn’t stop you.

You owe no one explanations for how you choose to advocate or the causes you choose to support.

You owe no one for the type of advocate you are. 

You owe no one reasons for who you decide to work with; and who you decide not to work with. 

You owe no one. 

You owe no one hope. 

You owe no one justifications for the technology you choose, or don’t choose. 

You owe no one a podium.

You owe no one details for why you are at a conference, a dinner, a meeting, talking diabetes.  

You owe no one the right to uses your diabetes as a teaching moment. 

You owe no one marathons or mountain climbs or channel swims in defiance of diabetes.

You owe no one your time to just read their blog post, join their support group, sign their petition.

You owe no one a cheer squad.

You owe no one the words and language you choose to use to help make sense of your diabetes.

You owe no one an insight into your diabetes management, your HbA1c, your CGM curve.

You owe no one.

Except. 

Maybe…

You owe yourself love and kindness and reminders that on days when diabetes feels too hard, too big, too sad, too … everything … that doing what you can is enough. You owe yourself room to breathe. You owe yourself space to step back and space to step up. You owe yourself pats on the back and high fives. You owe yourself flowers. You owe yourself the freedom to do diabetes your way and in your own time. 

You owe yourself. And no one – no one – else.