‘Are you going to Fringe?’ a friend asked. I had just moved to Adelaide and never heard of Fringe before. I was from Sydney, a city known for its bustling night life and seedy streets. We did not have many festivals in Sydney, apart from the famous light show known as Vivid. But apparently, Adelaide […]
Author: Steph Penny
Of Beauty and Rage
No one tells you about the rage. I wish someone had. I wish when I was first diagnosed with lupus that someone wise, a doctor, a counsellor, a pastor, had sat me down and said, ‘Now, Steph, lupus is going to change you as a person. You will come to resent your own skin and […]
If You’re Lost…
I can’t believe it’s March already. 2026 is galloping ahead. For some of us, we already feel a bit behind the eight-ball. This has not been the year some of us were hoping for. In fact, for some of us, 2026 stinks. It’s going in a completely unwanted, violent, catastrophic direction. And we feel left […]
Why Living with Lupus is Like a Scavenger Hunt—Part 3
What about Faith? Faith can be a two-edged sword with chronic illness. On the one hand, God’s nearness and companionship have been a great comfort to me. On the other, God has not healed me of lupus. I have wrestled with this. After all, it would be a whole lot easier if God would simply […]
Why Living with Lupus is Like a Scavenger Hunt—Part 2
Finding my Tribe It’s not easy to find support for a rare disease like lupus. But I have a few close friends with autoimmune conditions, and there is nothing quite like the breath of fresh air that is a friend who gets it. When they describe the sensation of brain fog and I say, ‘Oh, […]
Why Living with Lupus is like a Scavenger Hunt—Part 1
Something was wrong with me. I just knew it. I was in my early twenties, freshly graduated from university and starting work at my first full-time job. Flushed with my own success, I threw myself into work, embracing everything it threw back at me. The world was my oyster. Except this oyster was woefully sick. […]
In Our Hands
He came as a baby, Hungry, needy, Dependent in every way. He learned Under the guiding hands Of his parents, Growing into a boy, Then a man. The God who created the Universe, Who carved the sphere of the Earth With his own two good hands, Who shaped animals and trees, Who sprinkles snow on […]
The Counterculturalism of Stillness
‘Be still and know that I am God.’ Psalm 46:10, NIV Nearly three years ago, I started practising stillness on a regular basis. Inspired by Julia Baird’s luminescent book, Phosphorescence*, and the constant noise inside my own head, I set myself a goal of becoming still at least once a day. It didn’t matter if […]
Unsolicited Advice
In my solitary days of unwanted singledom, I received all sorts of unsolicited advice about how to unsingle myself. You know the sort: ‘You need to get out more.’ ‘Maybe you should be less picky.’ ‘Have you considered online dating?’ Some of that advice was pretty good, actually. Take the online dating, for instance. That’s […]
Happy Birthday, Book Baby!
‘I live with lupus,’ the lady said, ‘and when I saw in your author bio that you live with lupus too, I told myself I simply had to meet you!’ ‘I’m so thrilled to meet a fellow lupie!’ I laughed. Lupus is a rare condition and I often feel a bit alone and lost in […]