When I graduated, I thought the world was my oyster. Who could say no to someone who had two good degrees under her belt? As time went on and my health started to let me down, I started to realise that you can’t really expect anything from life if you can’t give much back.

As time passed, I had two babies, we moved back to Lisburn and life became the expected routine of sleepless nights, mother and toddler groups and the odd night out. Into that crashed my worst MS episode. I had been thinking about what lay ahead career-wise but when I couldn’t really walk, I had to do a re-think. The unexpected fork in the road led me to becoming a writer. Not a glamorous career, just a fairly lonely existence. One that I could not do without my husband’s salary!

I’ve been thinking about life’s unexpected paths recently. We might have lost a loved one, we might have been made redundant, a health scare might have shaken us out of our expected path. The disruption of our careful plans can feel like the end of life as we know it.

God tells us that He knows the plans he has for us, plans to give us a hope and a future.l * I don’t much like the way life has turned out for me. You might feel the same. But look again: wherever you have ended up, however difficult the journey, you are here. And maybe there are still good things around you that you have failed to notice.

Writing has given me lots of joy and I have met a lot of interesting people. My children are independently making their own way through life and I am deeply proud of them. My marriage has stared physical disability in the face and our love has stayed strong.

Of course, this path has not been easy, but whose hasn’t? I will hold onto God’s plans for me and look expectantly at what the next chapter has to offer. I hope you can see that in your future too.

*Jeremiah 29:11