It began to shout – you can’t keep me here forever.  And then, it pushed itself out. So, here’s what happened.  We’d just unblocked our chimney, in preparation for getting a stove installed.  There was a powerful draught, and on advice, we put a plastic bag in the bottom, to stop the wind howling down. …

Sitting here, cowboys, horses and wigwams lying around my feet, I’m beginning to feel a wierd sort of toy nostalgia.  I remember the Playmobil American settlers, and their campfires, milk pails and wagons that my brothers had.  We put shoe-boxes on their sides to make huts and stables, and I would pull them all close…

I hauled 3 months worth of luggage into a boxy room, and looked out the door, across the hall at a girl sitting cross-legged on the bed, lava-lamp beside her, incense thickly wafting into the corridor.  There were other intimidating people on the floor, but the one I remember most clearly had black hair, black…

This thought has been brewing in my head a long time, but today C.S.Lewis, one of my heroes, said it out loud for me: “of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you” (Mere Christianity). A few months ago, I started getting horrible bouts of vertigo.  Every…

There’s another mystery out my window.  An immaculately dressed, fully made-up lady walks past at least four times a day.  From this angle, it would be even more puzzling, but when I stand up, I see a tall, graceful dog bouncing on a lead in front of her.  In a stange kind of way, the…

He’s been told that the cancer has not been eliminated, but has spread.  There was no-one with him when he heard the news.  His wife is herself too incapacitated and confused to leave the nursing home, and their two children live abroad. He didn’t know how he was going to tell any of them.  He…

Usually when I’m sitting waiting for my bi-annual neurology check-up, nobody gives me a second glance.  But today, I sat one seat away from a lady who clearly wanted to talk.  After discussing the consultant, and the woman’s 20 year experience of MS, she was called in.  As she passed me on her way out,…

You would think, three women, what’s scary about that?  But let me tell you, I have never come across a more intimidating group, not in Govan, not in the classroom, not anywhere.  I know for a fact that if you have these three on your side, you’ll get things done and nobody will stand in…

I’m beginning to learn that happiness is not necessarily about extravagant, traditionally significant things.  Last week, I thought it would be a good idea to take my little boy’s bike to school.  Barely out the gate, I realised this was going to be more awkward than I had anticipated.  Leaning over the handlebars, having to…

…more than somebody who walks like they’re permanently on a wobble-board.  Somebody who, all of a sudden, sheds the image of mild disability to become like anybody else.  I can speak of the lengths I have done, and not the length of naps I’ve had or how hard I’ve found the day. Nobody knows, in…