The level of support from my last blog post was very unexpected. I was stunned. So many people read the post – and some have been in contact with similar conditions and experiences. I have joined some closed Facebook groups as well – and feel very connected to others now. You wouldn’t believe the amount of courage it took to press that little “post” button for that post. I was really worried what people’s reactions would be. I thought people would ignore it on their feed!

The reaction was one of warm kindness and I can’t thank friends or strangers enough. We are a very reserved family, and usually hate other people knowing our business so I was worried what my family would think about me telling all on such an open forum. My dad came home smiling that day, and said he was proud of me. It’s given me increased confidence, that’s for sure. I don’t worry about answering the door to the postman anymore, he’s got used to the tube I think. He did look quite shocked the first couple of times though, I have to admit. Ha!

On another topic, I recently got glasses. I haven’t stopped reading since! One in particular, that I read a few weeks ago is lingering in my head. I wouldn’t say it was my favourite collection of poetry, but I enjoyed it and it’s just stuck there. The collection is titled ‘the princess saves herself in this one’ by amanda lovelace (all lower case, as throughout the collection). It charts a young woman’s journey through heartbreak, loss and love with an overarching theme of needing to take time for self-care. Some of the poems used images used hundreds of times by other people e.g.  something along the lines of a ‘blackberry bruise’ – but there were a dozen poems in the book that I have bookmarked and keep on going back to. These selected poems removed some kind of block in my mind and made me see things differently. It’s almost been like seeing through a window I hadn’t noticed before. The poems are compressed and every word is chosen to fit just right.

I don’t really have much else to say. Thank you once again for your support, it makes things so much easier to have love and understanding around.