So, I searched for photos of people jumping with energy and joy and the only one I could relate to was this one! I think I used to be a morning person but now when my husband calls ‘rise and shine’ I pull the quilt back over my head. To get up at the minute means facing reality and I’d rather not.

It has not been a very pleasant week; full of unexpected tragedy that will stay with some for the rest of their lives. I have to acknowledge that first and foremost else my post will seem unsympathetic to everyone who is struggling today.

I don’t know why but the word ‘pilgrimage‘ keeps coming into my mind. My cousin sang about her week-long experience walking part of the Camino de Santiago, bringing me alongside with her rhythmic strumming. Someone else compared giving things up for Lent as joining with Jesus when He journeyed to Jerusalem and His death on the cross. Then I was reading Christy Lefteri’s The Beekeeper of Aleppo and read these words: ‘I can walk to the other side of the world and there will still be darkness… This darkness is inside me and has nothing to do with the outside world.’ That line struck me as the heart of the matter. It doesn’t matter how far we can walk or how beautiful the scenery, if we are struggling with the hardships of life, it is impossible to be impacted by the wonders close by.

Find a sense of achievement.

When you’re at school, tests track your progress. When you’re at work, often one-to-ones with your manager record how you are getting on. When you are an athlete or do some form of sport there are personal bests or step counts to measure your activities. However, when none of those feature in your daily life, different challenges need to be found.

A new story. My daughter said the other day, quite accurately, ‘you don’t write sequels.’ I wonder if anyone else is tired of the same old and wish something good could happen in our lives to jizz them up a bit? Something different. Something new.

All of us know what it’s like to have to carry on without something we have always had before. How do we cope?

A good day,

So often we can find ourselves in a hard place and cannot see a way out. But what if we can hold onto the little snatches of possibility and see them for the good chances that they are? Chances to feel better in yourself. An opportunity to find something good when everything seems to be wrong.

No way. Do you feel like you’re out of options? Have you given up all hope of getting out of the situation you’re in?

Can be huge. Did you know that a tiny mustard seed can become a massive tree? Last week, after a while of asking and guessing, I found out what was making my wee girl so sad. It may have seemed like a nothing to an adult, but to her, it was the only thing she could think about.

At least three times, every time he has seen me in fact, my surgeon has uttered those pessimistic words: ‘you’re not out of the woods yet’. He hasn’t told me how to get out, or how to survive while I’m in there. Not great for a Wind in the Willows aficionado that’s for sure. The only way that terrified Mole could cope when he was in the wild woods was by running out of them. I’m trapped here for two years apparently.