courage
Christmas greetings
Christmas blessings to you all whatever your circumstances.
If you are currently facing devastating loss or grief,
may you be given the strength and courage to go on.
If your life is a spiral of stress and anxiety,
may you find a way through to a calmer, more peaceful place.
If you are subject to oppression or rejection or abuse,
may you be helped to a place of safety and security.
If life is currently treating you kindly and you have all you need,
may these blessings continue, valued and appreciated.
If you are fortunate enough to enjoy a super-abundance of health and resources,
may you have the generosity to share wisely.
If you are in a position of power,
may you use it for the greater good and towards a fairer world.
‘Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.’
Drama illuminating medicine
As you know I’m a great fan of fiction and drama being used to bring the issues of medicine to a lay audience. It was my raison d’etre for writing my own fiction. So I was immediately grabbed by a series on BBC Radio 4 this week in which Dr Rachel Clarke brings one such topic to life: organ donation and transplantation.
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‘This is a tale of a boy, and a girl and a heart they share.’ It tells of 9 year old Keira, fatally injured in a car accident, becoming the donor for nine year old Max, a lad with a desperately diseased heart. It’s harrowing in parts, and I wept listening. A doctor herself, Rachel Clarke is someone I’ve long admired (she’s been mentioned several times on this blog) and her voice is pitch-perfect for this story. She knows all about walking alongside people in their darkest hours, about conveying devastating news, and about putting one’s own feelings to one side in order to do an immensely difficult job.
Intriguingly the narration weaves in historical detail about medical innovations that preceded this modern day miracle, making it possible, but those breaks provide welcome relief from the heart-wrenching emotion of the main story.
A couple of years ago I was personally involved in a transplant situation, and the profound emotions generated are not something I feel able to talk about. This programme offered space and privacy for a cathartic reaction, so I’m doubly grateful.
Against the odds
I am blown away by the courage and fortitude of so many of my fellow authors. Not just battling a harsh system in a difficult and fickle industry, but succeeding against all manner of odds.
Why is this in my mind this week? Because I’ve just re-read an exceptionally good issue of the writing journal Mslexia (Winter 21/22) which captures the indomitable spirit of women who have picked themselves up, dusted themselves down, and got right back in the saddle. Inspirational stuff. What are the puny obstacles in my path against these giants?
There’s Faye Keegan who overcame poverty and depression and anxiety and lockdown and moving into a boat too small even for her writing desk. She’s still constantly grappling with boat-related crises, but she’s back writing.
Then there’s crime writer Joy Ellis who struggled with ME, the collapse of her upmarket floristry business, being homeless, injury in a motorbike accident, innumerable rejections and disappointments, but now in her 70s, with over 3 million sales under her belt, and publishing three new titles a year.
Jesse Sutanto is really really hard on herself and has had her fair share of rejection. After 11 years of serious writing she’s still only had three of her nine novels published. Does she give in? Certainly not. She overcomes the inner voice that constantly berates her by writing really really fast so she can outrun it! She aims for 2,000 words a day, and writes in bursts of 15 minutes at a time. ‘Nothing is too intimidating if you only have to do it for 15 minutes’, she says.
When Matilda Tristram was diagnosed with bowel cancer during her first pregnancy she used the experience to advantage by writing a comic diary about it! It was both therapeutic and confirming, educating and entertaining, emotionally beneficial and artistically valuable.
All power to the writing hands (and hearts and minds) of any who are struggling against demons within and without.