‘I’m think about writing another book,’ I said to my friend. We’d just been shopping and we were walking along the platform of the train station, talking about my second book which had just been published.
‘I’m feeling the itch to start my third book. It seems I can’t stop writing!’ I laughed.
‘Any idea what the third one will be about?’ enquired my friend.
‘Oh yes, it’s all worked out. I’m going to write about surviving chronic illness.’
Now, one thing you need to know about my friend is that she also lives with chronic illness. She and I have had many conversations about our lived experiences of illness and how our various conditions have affected our faith and sanity (not always in a good way). She’s the kind of person who ‘gets it’.
When she heard I was going to devote my next book to the thorny subject of chronic illness, she didn’t speak. Instead, she threw her arms around me and hugged me tight. That embrace, standing there on the station platform, lodged in my memory. It’s been a driving force for my writing ever since.
That embrace, standing there on the station platform, lodged in my memory.
This is a major motivation for writing a book on chronic illness. Any illness is a difficult hand to be dealt. More difficult still is the illness that never goes away and doesn’t respond to treatment or prayer. This kind of chronicity can have a profound impact on one’s workplace, relationships, sanity and even faith.
I know I am not alone in this experience. I have quite a few friends (yes, I have more than one friend) who are living with chronic illness, and most of them seem to be autoimmune diseases, which is a special kind of beast. Navigating the world of autoimmune disease can feel like trying to solve a maths equation while painting your nails and balancing atop a flying dragon who is also trying to eat you. Tricky.
My friends share in this experience. I am sure there are many others, perhaps like you, who have experienced the rollercoaster of trying to function on a day-to-day level while your body slowly collapses from under you. If you know what I’m talking about, you’re not alone.
This is why I wrote Surviving Chronic Illness: Grace in the Flames. It’s also why I write in general. I have survived some horrible things, but I am sure I am not alone; how good would it be if my lived experience could help someone else? And so I make my words available to you, in the hope that you—and maybe someone you know—might benefit from knowing it’s not just you. You are not alone.
Writing a book isn’t easy. Living with chronic illness isn’t easy. But for me, the one seems to fuel the other. The flares I have experienced over the past few years while writing this book—and I’ve had some doozies—have added fuel to the fire, this desire to get my experience out there so it can help others.
That’s my driving purpose: solidarity, sharing my experience, and giving hope to others. Coz I know what it’s like. I’ve been to the bottom where you wonder if things are ever going to get better, if this pain or flare is ever going to end. I’ve been there. And guess what? I’m still here. You’re still here. Somehow, both of us are still breathing.
That’s what keeps me writing. That, and the vivid memory of my friend holding me tight on that platform. That’s fuel enough for a lifetime.
Do you, or does someone you know, have lived experience of chronic illness? Can you relate to the rollercoaster or dragon-flying nature of survival? I hope you know you are not alone. And I would love to hear your experience. Share your story. Let’s have a countercultural conversation.
Want to purchase Surviving Chronic Illness? Click here: https://stephpenny.com.au/product/surviving-chronic-illness-grace-in-the-flames/
Want to read a little bit more about it? Click here: https://stephpenny.com.au/surviving-chronic-illness-preorder-available/
Watch this space—announcements about ebooks and other exciting things coming soon!