I relate to the boy with the loaves and fish. In John 6, Jesus fed a crowd of five thousand people by taking an anonymous boy’s food, five loaves of bread and two fish, and handing it out. Not only was everyone satisfied, they had twelve baskets full of leftovers. I feel like that as […]
Surviving Chronic Illness
What Would I Want the Next Generation of Christian Women to Know?
I was recently interviewed by Fixing Her Eyes* and they asked me a difficult question: What would I want to tell the next generation of Christian women? What would I want them to know? I believe this worthy question warrants more than the couple of paragraphs I originally wrote. So here goes. To Christian women […]
How I’m Dealing with Health Setbacks (or Not)
I recently broke my shoulder. And it was a clever break too, in a part of the shoulder that apparently gets broken only one percent of the time. I slipped on a wet floor and landed with all my weight on my shoulder. Simple as that. And you can bet your arm it was elegant. […]
The Hope Series – Part 3: Breathing
I was thirty when I had a heart attack. OK, it wasn’t really a heart attack. But it sure felt like one. When the pain in my chest first started, I thought it was no big deal. I took some pills for what I thought was muscle pain. But as I sat there, arms wrapped […]
The Hope Series – Part 2: Singing
I have twice lost my voice to illness. Not just colds and flus either. I’m talking prolonged periods of hoarse talking, effortful breathing and painfully reduced singing ability. And those voice problems have not responded to the usual treatments. That’s because my vocal problems have not been caused by the usual culprits: bad singing technique, […]
Why I Don’t Mind Turning 40
Some people are terribly afraid of ageing. In my early twenties I travelled with a group of girls who were petrified of the big two-five. ‘I really struggled with turning twenty,’ one of them confided. ‘I don’t know how I’ll cope with being twenty-five.’ I was in my thirties at the time. It baffled me […]
In Between
In February 2020, mere weeks before COVID-19 happened, I had a medical scare. I had been sick and was awaiting some test results. The symptoms I was having and the kinds of tests the doctor had ordered all painted a very grim picture indeed. As each day passed, bringing me inevitably closer to the results […]
What’s in a Name?
I was recently inspired by Bella DePaulo’s blog, Alone, Unattached and Other Wrong Terms for Single People[i]. This blog touched on some of the unhelpful names we give single people, names that imply singles are less-than the rest of society or missing something vital. I can relate to this. When I was single, people referred […]
A Stranger on Earth
Living on earth can take a toll on us. Pandemics. Natural disasters. Poverty. The exhaustion of politics, corruption and social causes. This life can be painful. And some days it can feel like the pain will never end. As a person living with chronic illness, the pain is literally never-ending. Don’t get me wrong. Some […]
10 Things I Love About You: An Open Letter To COVID-19
Dear COVID-19, It seems only yesterday you came into my life. You have been here for a couple of months now, and while our relationship is still new, I feel as though I am beginning to get to know you. You have changed my life. Of course, COVID-19, it is tempting to treat this letter […]