We cannot expect our younger selves to have understood what only a lifetime of experience could teach us. I have often heard it said that the year before a major milestone becomes a reflective one. A year of looking backwards as much as forwards. Of taking stock. Of remembering who you were, who you became,…
Tag: gratitude
Never Abandoned
Our vulnerability does not diminish our faith; it reminds us how deeply we need God. Five years ago today, I received news that changed my life. But two days before that, on an ordinary Monday morning, my body gave me the first terrifying sign that something was terribly wrong. Nothing about the morning itself felt…
Writing While Able
Sometimes we forget that what we are able to do today is itself a gift worth treasuring. For some years now, I have lived with a certain kind of uncertainty, the kind that quietly follows me even on ordinary days. It is not always loud. Sometimes it sits far enough in the background that I…
Next To You
As love deepens, excitement can soften into something quieter: the feeling of being safe with one another. Yesterday was one of those days that start normally but end with your heart in your throat. My elderly dad had a fall. It ended well, thank God, but at the time it was frightening. The ambulance came,…
The Day I Trembled
Being given more time to live is a gift that includes both the joy and the sorrow. I stood at the gates of eternity. Not metaphorically. Not in some dreamy, poetic sense. I stood there, suspended between breath and no breath, between the beating heart and silence. Between earth… and heaven. The cord of life…
We Call on Him
Remembering to turn to God in gratitude is just as important as turning to Him in hardship. For a number of years, Peter and I shared a quiet ritual with our dear friends, Stephen and his late wife Wendy. We each brought a song — something that spoke to us in that season of life…
To my grandson
We do not always have to know what to say or do to comfort someone; sometimes our presence offers more than we realise. You made me a nanna —from the very first moment your dad placed you gently in my arms,just a minute old, soft and new,you stole my heart completely.And you’ve held it ever…
Storyteller
Our lives hold more than any record of them could ever contain. My phone flashes the warning again: Storage almost full. Again. I take a lot of photos. Not for an audience. Not to curate a flawless life. I take them to gather crumbs, breadcrumbs scattered through the forest of my days. Each image a…
Life is Precious
A meaningful life is built when our daily choices reflect what we say matters most. Every single day we wake up is a gift —wrapped not in paper, but in possibility. We often move through our days as if they are endless,as if time owes us more,as if we can press pause on what truly…
All I Wanted
A dream can come true and still keep changing shape throughout our lives. When I was a little girl and someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I never hesitated. I didn’t dream of empires or impressive careers. I simply said, “a mum.” That was all I ever wanted. Not…
