An incredible family – and an incredible story. Thank you James and Virag. “I received an email recently, with the subject “the words no parent ever wants to hear”. When I opened the email, to find the sender was a healthcare company making a trivial point about the suprise of running out of nappies, I was rather exasperated. Over the past three and a half years, I have heard too many things that no parent ever wants to hear. …Read More
Guest post from Glen: How do you capture the grief of losing a five year old child? Ryan and Amy Green, a Christian couple from Colorado, made a game about it “That Dragon, Cancer“, which people are calling “the most profound videogame ever.” Since Emma showed it to me, I can’t stop thinking about it. It did not begin life as a memorial. The game was birthed while hopes were high for Joel’s healing. He had been diagnosed with brain cancer …Read More
God’s time-frame is not ours. And sometimes, He answers our prayers, a little later than we expect. When I was nine or ten, I entered a competition that our primary school was running with Belfast zoo. ZOO! ZooZooZooZooZoo. I LOVE zoos: and Belfast was the BEST. To enter, you had to write a poem about the new baby kangaroos. The winners would then get to visit them with the class, and – get this – give them kangaroo names. I felt sick just thinking about it. So, I …Read More
1.Give yourself time to adjust: take time to talk it through with a partner, a close friend or someone from church. 2. Get a second opinion and make sure that you’ve got a GP or consultant that you feel comfortable with. If you don’t, ask if you can see someone else. 3. Do some research: but from reputable books or websites. Do Not Google. This is not the time for random message boards or (scary) misinformation. If you’re trying different things, …Read More
May is M.E awareness month. M.E stands for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. It’s a scary word for an even scarier condition: and one we don’t yet know enough about. It affects an estimated 250,000 men, women and children in the UK. Symptoms vary and can include intense exhaustion and chronic pain. For some, it is so severe that they can’t even leave their home or bed. If this was you, you’d be desperate for treatment. But experts can’t even agree about what it is, let …Read More
Mental health struggles are not sins. When I was obsessively checking door handles and washing my hands and counting cracks in the walls and repeating phrases in my head – it was not because I enjoyed doing it. It was exhausting and demeaning and debilitating and painful and I did it because I felt compelled to; because in my head if I didn’t, the people I loved might get hurt. I wanted to stop, but I didn’t know how. When …Read More
My mum is one of the most servant-hearted people I’ve ever met (and cheerful with it). But like many of us, she’s terrified of being a burden on others. ”When the time comes’, she insists, ‘just pull the plug: I don’t want you wasting your life looking after me.’ Dying and being ill are scary prospects. No-one wants to have their bum wiped or to be fed or clothed. We want to be healthy and strong; remembered at our best…not …Read More
I’m a healthy weight. Have been for a while. I know a real freedom in many areas I thought I’d never feel. But there’s more to getting better than what I eat. Which is why I struggle with ‘recovery’. The term, as well as the fact. Does it have stages, like an exam: practical and theory? A trial period when you’re on ‘L-plates’ before you’re let loose on the motorway? What does it actually mean? A change in behaviour? A …Read More
Struggling a bit this week. We’ve got a fertility appointment on Friday and the whole thing just makes me feel sick and sad and enormously weary. The issues are complicated. (Mind you, I doubt anyone rocks up to this clinic with a simple problem and a simple solution. ‘You’re banana-deficient: here! Eat this…and may your womb be blessed’). Add in our faith-based treatment qualms and you get a laughing consultant who, at our last appointment, asked if we understood percentages. …Read More
