How often at this time of the year have we said, “I’ll be glad to see the back of that year!”? Often closely followed by: “New Year New Me”. It’s tempting, at the first strike of the bells on new year’s eve, to clink our glasses or watch those fireworks and think, “Next year … More A New Year – honouring loss, celebrating emergence
Alternative Advent Calendar – December 24, 2017 When you wish upon…the International Space Station Hmm – not quite the same ring as the version sung by Louis Armstrong! But I guess the International Space Station (ISS) could now be considered a ‘heavenly body’. At this time of year, thoughts often turn to the heavenly body … More Star of Wonder
The “Unthought Known” Last week my gorgeous mother-in-law, now aged 97 and one of the most insightful women I know, said to me, ‘Sometimes you don’t know you have a thought until you speak it.’ Such a short sentence. Such simple words. But never a truer, more wise sentence was spoken. Her words ran through … More Midwinter Take 2
C’mon – let’s start writing ‘Lists of Kindness’! So, lists aren’t exactly an ‘official’ festive tradition but where would we be without them at this time of year? When the going gets stressful, the stressed get listing! And as I see other folk putting up Christmas trees and filling their shopping trolleys with yet another … More 3rd December – List-mas
On many levels this has proved a difficult post to write – technically, professionally and emotionally. It is tricky to write about something that wasn’t: a non-fictional person who never existed. I say ‘non-fictional’ because a child is created before it is conceived. I don’t know who said this (please let me know if … More The Presence of Absence: learning to live with my potential child
“A moment came not long after my niece was born that encapsulated the sense that joy and jealousy could both inhabit the same space.” JEALOUSY. There! I’ve put it in capitals because it is a very human response and it’s okay to say it out loud. But so often jealousy is an unwanted, shameful whisper … More Giving Jealousy a Hug: banishing the shame of jealousy in childlessness
Hello lovely people Well, the season has finally turned and we, in the northern hemisphere, are entering early summer with (we all hope!) the promise of warmer days ahead. Despite my horticultural ignorance and negligence, the plants in my garden are sprouting, springing and flowering again and, at the risk of breaking into song, … More Moments of Emergence
Welcome to Without Issue. If you have found this blog I’m guessing you may have been struggling with fertility issues and are now facing some very big questions about you and about your life. The prospect of never being able to create the family you desperately want can feel like a tortuous, never ending … More Hope… and Skating
Without Issue 