I have a son who is an addict. My beautiful blue eyed child who has so much within him to offer this world through his love and compassion and wacky sense of humour. Probably the hardest thing about addiction for family members is being open and honest with those around you. People are so quick to judge, point fingers and give advice. You are judged on so many levels as a parent as to not [...]
So typically i prefer TABOO TOPIC posts to have a face and a name to help make the issues being discussed more 'real person' to other people going through them. But i am going to make an exception in this case as it is a friend who i know sharing the story and the nature of the story is needing some protection from family and friends... but i hope this will be an encouragement and [...]
The domino moment…Most of you have experienced some sort of 'domino moments' in your life which you will never forget. Some are good, some are bad but that single moment shifted your life and changed it forever. Our moment happened sitting in a hospital room and being told that our 4 year old daughter Zofeya had a brain tumour. The world around you crumbles and although everything has changed in this single moment, you know [...]
It is early 2012. The phone rings and my brother George answers. Silence. Eventually I whisper: “I need to get out of here. I need help.” But the story starts in 1995, at a party, where a friend was having so much more fun than everyone else. “What’s he on? Is he drunk?” Our innocent questions were answered with “Ecstasy” and a journey into 18 years of intense addiction began. That first pill was exactly [...]
When i started sharing stories on rarely spoken off issues in the form of Taboo Topics, one of the main reasons was to put a name and a face on a topic that is not often dealt with. There is a lot of power in this as it helps make an issue someone else might be struggling with seem a lot more real. There has been much positive feedback in this regard. However, as i [...]
HIS BANNER OVER ME IS SINGLE Last month I was supposed to get married. There was no ring on my finger, no invitations in the mail. But there was a date on a calendar and the seed of a dream that had been planted in my heart many, many months ago. I’d had a plan—we’d had a plan—in a world where I was part of a “we,” in lifetime that doesn’t feel all that long [...]
After last week's fairly quiet week on the internet, this week seems to be right back up there with issues or race and transformation taking centre stage, with a sweet injection of Christmas in between. Here are the blog posts, links and stories that have been catching my attention this week - which one was yours? MOST EXCITING My friend Dalene Reyburn finally launched her book, 'Dragons and Dirt: The Truth about changing the world [...]
I thank God for the example I received from my parents about what being a godly, loving parent and spouse looks like. By God’s grace whether we have had a shocking or terrific upbringing we still have the responsibility to choose how we parent. However, it is easier to aim at what we want to emulate, than to just know what you don’t want to replicate. I thank God for the naivety and bliss with [...]
I have taken a long time after telling Brett that I would write this, to actually sit down and put some words together. It feels strange to ‘tell our story’ because in so many ways we just feel like a normal family. Daddy, Mommy and baby. I’ve discovered in these last few months that much to my disappointment I am not a super-mother, I am very much the typical Mom who is doing all the [...]
I think it is important that I give an examples of how 'baseline' thinking can help us navigate difficult waters. 1.) The issue of employment equity is a difficult one. My take on it is that from my experience both young white and black people fundamentally want to feel like they are being treated fairly and of course that is a most reasonable thing, but I do want to latch on to the idea of [...]