When I was first diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, I felt like I was walking in a fog. A thick, stew-like fog. I didn’t know what to do, where to turn. I couldn’t see or think clearly.

But that quickly changed when I had to re-enter the real world of responsibilities, obligations, and demands. All I wanted to do was crawl back into bed and make it all go away.

Sound familiar?

Happy Labor Day loves!  In honor of the day I thought I'd offer up some signs that mean that the work you're laboring over is actually your life's work.

When I work with patients, I always ask them whether they’re doing their life’s work, because I truly believe that how we spend most of our day, and whether it’s in line with our life’s work, affects our health. When I ask a woman if she’s doing her life’s work, way too often, she stares at me blankly.

While heroic workers battle the threat of nuclear meltdown in Japan, a different kind of fallout seems to threaten the peace of those of us in the US. As fears that radioactive particles will float across the ocean and strike the United States escalate, we seem to be paying less attention to the tragic loss of life and peace in Japan and more on how this might hurt us right here at home.

Some of my friends are fleeing the west coast in search of safe haven further east. Others are dosing up on potassium iodide in an attempt to protect themselves (as evidenced by those who are stockpiling potassium iodide in spite of the advice of health officials who are telling us to chill out). Still more are just plain freaking out. I’ve gotten at least a dozen cautionary emails just today from people who are encouraging me to be afraid.

A church in Gainesville, Florida is planning on burning a stack of Qurans on September 11, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on our country -- and I, for one,  just have to scream, “NO! This is not the answer!” We are not a nation based on hate or discrimination. Fighting hatred with hatred serves nobody and hurts many.

Politicians from both sides of the red/blue divide (from Hillary Clinton and Obama’s advisors to Sarah Palin), as well as the Pope, General Petraeus, and almost 9000 people on a Facebook page aimed at stopping the madness all agree that this is simply preposterous, disgraceful, and un-American. Not to wax poetic about revolutionary war values, but this country was based on religious freedom first and foremost. How can we condemn those who act out of fear and hatred to hurt those in this country if some of us are doing the same? Didn’t this Gainesville church learn anything in kindergarten or Sunday School -- like “two wrongs don’t make a right” and “love thy neighbor as thyself?” I mean seriously, people. Grow up.