We are in such an intensely sweet stage with the kids at the moment, interspersed by periods of intense whining. Such is life, I suppose! But I want to remember these moments because this is the part of childhood I loved the most, and the part of parenting I was most excited about…
I wrote this post two months ago (almost to the day) as I was on a train leaving Lancaster, having just spent 24 hours with my dear friend who was dying. She told me then that she had two to six months to live, she died last night. I woke up feeling sad yesterday – sad enough to write about it… And then she died. I’ve already written about some of this so it may be repetition, but I decided on the train that I would only post it after Camilla died, and now she has.
What is so strange and surprising to me is that if you let yourself feel the sadness, it does pass. It washes over you, and you emerge out the other side. If you don’t bottle it up or resist it, it passes. I’m sure most other people know this already, but I feel like I’m just learning it…
How do you feel about sadness? It’s an odd question, because surely we should all feel comfortable with all the emotions, but I’ve come to realise (particularly in the last few months) that that isn’t true for me. Here’s what I’ve unpacked…
It’s been a strange few days here in the McPeddle household… Last week was really sad, as I said, and I was just starting to climb out of that feeling when illness hit. Ella got chickenpox on Friday and we were on contagious house arrest all weekend, and it was… surprising.
One of the main reasons I went to the US last month was to see my dear friend and teacher, Camilla. I wanted to interview her to write her memoir – to fulfill a life pact from 14 years ago.
