This week I will turn 40. It’s my fifth un-shared twin birthday, and the first significant (ending in 0) one since Red Twin died. We will not turn 40 together, as we did not turn 36 together, or 37, or 38, or 39… It brings with it an additional grief […]
Dear Red Twin I’m 39 tomorrow. You’ll always be 35 I guess. I keep thinking I’ll stumble onto a way where I’ll feel OK about my/our birthday but here we are at no.4 and I’m at a loss again. I don’t sleep, I don’t want to see anyone, I don’t […]
I knew I had to make a plan for my 36th birthday, or else I would just end up doing nothing, which didn’t feel right. I thought I’d like to do something celebratory, to take what Red Twin taught me and apply it. And my mentor Moyra had written to […]
It’s my 36th birthday this month. See how I used ‘my’ there? 35 birthdays have been ‘ours’, but this one is only mine. I think some people have this idea that twins limit and squash one another, that if they could disentangle themselves from one another, they would be more […]
“We always assume our way is normal,” I told the group I was teaching on cross-cultural communication last week. This thought was still bumping its way around my head as I thought about the birthday cake I was about to make. Five of the TAFES staff are September birthdays, and […]
Friday is Elliot’s first birthday and I’m feeling a bit sad. In my mind, a first birthday party has several components: presents (and wrapping paper!) family and godparents a cake, in the shape of a number 1, covered with Smarties or M&Ms. a candle to blow out Elliot’s first birthday […]
Meet Jesus at uni 