As New Year came around, I watched discussions of New Year’s resolutions on Facebook. I don’t normally make resolutions, but I have in the past made yearly goals. However, my mind was a blank for 2019 apart from ‘just get through it.’ Grief makes your brain a fog. You can’t […]
When Red Twin died, a number of people sent me this image, entitled ‘First Day in Heaven’ by Kerolos Safwat: It’s meant to be a comfort, to picture the relief and happiness of the deceased person, now that they are united with the One they have spent their life following, […]
It’s Advent, the season of expectation and preparation for Christmas, our first Christmas without Red Twin, and the two year anniversary of her cancer diagnosis. Christmas Eve two years ago we were in Iringa for a conference when Red Twin WhatsApped to say the diagnosis was in and it was […]
I’ve always been a good sleeper. I was even one of those miracle babies whose parents hit the genetic jackpot of offspring who sleep through the night at 6 weeks. As an adult, I fall asleep almost as soon as my head hits the pillow, and my superpower is the […]
I’ve been benefiting from listening to a Swahili women’s podcast ‘Wanawake wa Imani‘ (Women of Faith). One of the recordings is a talk on John 4, Jesus’ encounter with the Samarian woman at the well. I was especially encouraged by the comments made about the bit where the woman asks […]
My grief counsellor showed me this diagram: It’s about ‘grief work’, which is a combination of doing two things: feeling the loss, and working out how you will go on. Healthy grief work is like a pendulum. You swing between the two, and the swings are big at first and […]
Since we moved to Dar I’ve been pretty isolated. I can’t get a work visa, but being a stay at home mum is not really a thing in middle-class Tanzania, so it’s been hard to even find people to be friends with. I had an American friend who worked full-time […]
Meet Jesus at uni 