Skip to main content

Beginning and End

Hi guys, sorry for the lack of communication lately, its been a hectic time of late, only a few days till Sam starts kindy. We had a birthday party today for Sam's girlfriend Summer :) They are the cutest, such innocent little minds and hearts. I really am so lucky to have the people in my life that I do, I feel I am surrounded with the best.

I got home to my parents today for them to tell me that our next door neighbour ( when I use to live there) had passed away due to cancer. He was older, so its sometimes easy to think, oh well thats normal and in the cycle of life. But I saw his daughter today, and not matter how old you are, you still belong. That is still her daddy. She still feels like his little princess. It still hurts the same as when she would have been 5 years old. In saying that he was old, probably in his 60's :) Sorry to those whom that offends :) I also saw his little grandchildren, who have no concept of age. All that they know is that they love Papa, and he isnt home today. He wont be at christmas and he wont have a cuddle when they knock on his door. I know this is really sad and morbid, and there was a time in my life, well 25 years, where this is all I dwelled on, this is all I thought of and put myself through. The thought of losing those closest to me was too much to bare, ever. Now days I am removed, which is a really bad thing but also a really good. It is a relief to not have those obsessive, crippling thoughts and fears, but it is also hard to not care aswell. The pendulum has swung too much to the other side, maybe one day you will all find me smack bang in the middle, one day.

I take Sam to see my Nana once a week and to him, Nana and Anna are the same. Nana is nearing 80 years old and Anna is nearing 8 weeks. But to Sam, they are equal. They are both permanent in his life and he loves them the same. The both matter. Isnt it sad that we write people off, even accidentally. That I can easily think that Nana is silly and old because she never hears me and she repeats herself. Yet she endured physical and emotional abuse at the hands of a drunk husband, she remarried and lost the love of her life 7 years later. She raised 3 daughters and babysit us hundreds of time. She taught us the songs we know, she spent hours with us. Yet now, to give her an hour is sometimes a drain. And she is a lucky great grandma, lots of GG's ( our name for her) barely ever see their great grandkids. It is sad. It is sad that I thought that George was in his 60's so its ok, when his wife sleeps alone tonight, and she isnt ok. That George still felt 20 years old, that I feel 16 and im heading for 30.
We are never ready. Never ready for loss.
Even when we expect it, when it finally happens, it doesnt take the pain away. It can help with the shock if you have preperation. But it doesnt take the ache away for that person who you cant hold, or call up and tell that you had a bad day. I think If we had to say, most if not all of us have experienced loss. Some extremely close to home, and some more distant. It hurts. For this world,  It stings... and its too late for me to run next door and tell George that there is hope.

1 Corinthians 15:55
Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where oh death is your victory ? Where oh death is your sting?

For me, I spent my entire life afraid of something that had already been defeated. That the old sunday school saying that we will all be together in heaven, actually has truth and life it in. That death has lost its sting, its brutality, its permanency.This is not the end my friends, and for those who have loved and lost, you will see them again, What amazing hope we have. You will hold your daughters hand again, you will kiss her head, you will feel your mummys arms around you and feel safe again, you will laugh with old friends. This life is as bad as it gets friends. This is the worst of it. So hold your heads up tonight, take heart. For the pain and suffering you experience in this life has an end. It has a finish line, it has a limit, it is not forever.  We will rise with wings of eagles, we will run and not grow weary, walk and not faint. Hurt but not be snuffed out. In Jesus, we have eternal hope. So lets maybe take a moment to consider our next door neighbour who maybe doesnt have the same hope, our friends at the supermarket, maybe even our own family who doesnt know the truth. Those whom this earth does sting, and is hopeless. Lets try, even in our grief and hardship, to continue to look beyond ourselves, and into our neighbours yard. Because even 5 minutes out of my day could have changed Georges life forever. xxoo

Comments

  1. Thanks Lisa, reading your blog kind of rattled me. I've been so focused on me and my problems that I forgot the grand picture of things. God Bless Hun.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meet Me In The Mess xx

What a horrific week. Australia was left heart broken and the footy world gutted as we lost a key leader of the game to a disease of the mind- suicide. The christian world has been rocked by another young pastor with a young family , taking his life only days ago. As someone advocating for the awareness and treatment of mental illness for over 10 years via this blog-  We need to talk.  I’ve been asked my thoughts/ advice / experience on this latest topic of Pastors and Suicide and to be perfectly honest- it’s tough. It’s tough because there is no one size fits all. There is no “depression” and “anxiety” that fit neatly into a little box with a bow on top. It’s messy.  We’re messy. We all are. Do I believe God is still God and God is still good and brilliant and beautiful and a healer and a comforter? - Yes I do.  But I also believe we as a society are living beyond our means. We are over stimulated and under responsive, we’re addicted, w...

The Vicious Cycle

Last night, my husband sat with me in the car and we held hands in silence, as I let the tears roll down my cheeks. This continous cycle is almost predictable yet I cannot break it. Im not sure what to share and what to hold onto. I want this blog to be an inspiration, but I also promised truth. I believe by sharing the truth of the situation that in turn some of you can identify with the pain of this and feel less isolated. So, here I am. In the same lounge room that Sam learnt to crawl in , yet I have no recollection of him doing so. I'll take the chance now to tell you that I have found an amazing pycologist who is redefining my thoughts and perceptions of my entire life so far. The benefits have been immeasurable and the amount I have learnt is mind blowing, yet I reach this point where as much as that helps, I am still in the prison of my own mind and its perception of reality- I still feel removed from life and its emotions and responses. Can I just say, that le...

Bricks & Mortar

Happy Easter beautiful readers. Thank you for relentlessly taking this journey with me. To say it humbles me would be an incredible understatement. What an amazing time of year. Easter. The notion that what we believe isn't a story, but in fact a reality, and it begs us to re-evaluate the true state of happenings we are living in. One would dare say, a state of emergency. Isn't it so incredibly easy to have God in the background , and keep busy in our treasures we are storing on this earth, which ultimately have zero value. I find  One always  gives way to the other. I know for me, in the times when Jesus is so madly on my case ( well He always is, I just don't always want to listen ) I get this glimpse of what walking in the spirit of Jesus actually looks like. What my life should look like everyday. But I've got my own stuff to do, my own TV shows to obsess over, my own problems to mull over, my own children to take up my time. I segregate God and my life, li...

The Mess In The Message xx

Hey Fam! I wrote this blog last week, before the news of another pastor caught in a web of infidelity made its way to the headlines. Ouch. That one hurt my heart. They all do, but that one was deep. Thankfully, the only need we have is Jesus, the only mentor we can fully trust is Jesus. The only wisdom and encouragement we need is found in His word.  So with that in mind, here’s the words I plopped down last week:   Hello Friends, new and old. 2020. Here we are. On the eve of an election, in the heat of a pandemic, on the edge of our seats hoping and praying that 2021 will be a new start. We’re imperfect humans with a perfect God. We’re simultaneously broken and whole. We are living in this timeline of fallen humanity and perfect peace. Flesh and Spirit. We as humans are in the constant wrestle of the world and God, pleasure and pain, jealousy, anger, bitterness, forgiveness, happiness, desperation, excitement, disappointment. Essentially, if we a...

The best and worst day of the year

Hey folks, thanks for reading again. I really appreciate the feedback and encouragement. You are lovely. So today is an emotional day, especially for queenslanders in our country. Our prayers are with you xxoo I was hesitant to blog today, wanting to be sensitive to the natural disasters happening so closely around us, and also because it is an emotional day. A combination of my parents leaving for overseas for a month, and it being Sams birthday. We fit so much into one day, mcdonalds for breakfast, pizza hut for lunch, yogi bear at the movies, slip and slide, pirate ship dinner...massive day. So my little baby is 4. For those dealing with the same/similar condition as me you would know what I mean when I say I literally dont know where the years have gone. I think a sad thing is that Sams birthday is always going to be hard for me. I need to make it about him and his life, not about me. But I was saying to Jas on the way home tonight, it is really hard having Sams birthday, also b...

Butterflies and Caterpillars.

Today I had the privilege of watching the beautiful view from our bedroom, and to watch Bella see a butterfly for the first time. We watched it sit on the blossoms and then all of a sudden, to Bella's amazement,  it flew!! Bella couldn't believe it! The butterflies flew up and down and all around the garden. They flew where ever they wanted with abandon. The colours were bright and beautiful, they were free. In that moment I heard a whisper into my soul. I love these whispers, they have sustained me. Jesus quietly spoke to my heart and revealed to me that as caterpillars, the butterflies lived a completely different life. They didn't know at the time that a transformation was taking place, and in the cocoon, in the darkest time when the world seemed the most bleak, that's when the greatest change of all was taking place. In our cocoons, trials, suffering , the fire refines us. It burns away garbage and whatever it leaves becomes invaluable and strong. The pain in ...

The Village

I've aptly named this blog The Village. Being so because it's where I am physically and emotionally right now. The Village is the name of our local shop and as I sit here out the front of The Reject Shop, I'm realising that I have In fact, become a northerner ( Mum and sister, look away). I have a routine. I have my coffee shops. I have our Woolies. Today I saw our local doctor. While I sit here waiting for my script for Zoloft, (unashamedly because that's why we even have this blog, advocate of medication for life! On that note I was doing some reading today and found that codeine interacts with SSRI's and can cause serotonin syndrome or symptoms of it, so steer clear of that combination if you are on) I'm pondering the last hour of my life. I usually blame my husband for the fact that I can't go anywhere at our local shopping centre without seeing an array of people that I now call friend, because he has met and involved himself in the life of the ma...

Her First Smile

My niece loves me...YAY! She looks for me when someone else is holding her and when I talk to her she listens intently. It might be my dashing good looks, it might also be that I act like an insane ( excuse the pun :) preschooler when I talk to her and use any part of my body that will, to make a noise at her. She is just learning to smile, I am yet to receive one, but I am told her mummy did get 2 yesterday. Its funny how they go from being newborns, to adapting to the world in a matter of weeks. She is taking stuff in and learning who we are, she even copies me when I poke my tongue out! But seriously, how crazy is creation! That from nothing being in  our tummies, comes a baby with eyes and organs and an incredible brain. Where does all that stuff come from??? Like I know where so don't all reply with your dirty minds:), but I mean even when I was pregnant I'd look at my tummy and think, there is definitely no eyes in there to give a baby so how did he come out with them?!...

Jason

Jason. My husband. The human who knows when I'm exaggerating a story and gives me " the look." ( let's face it extroverts of the world, stories are always more awesome when you add a bit of volume). The human who can instantly tell when I'm suffering by one look at my face, and gets me to safety and comfort without either of us having said a word. The protector of my heart. The pursuer of my dreams. The messiest whilst being the most Hygienic person on God's green earth. Ladies and gentleman, Jason McPhee is an enigma. There is no box he fits in. There is no making sense of his nonsense. He is a non-stop outta control train that just keeps on racing through life....in the most unique, beautifully stunning way. Money is of no value to him. (Therefore, I go shopping on his behalf, for myself, just to keep things flowing.) But really, all I ever wanted in a best friend for life was someone with the same heart as my Daddy. They are few and far between. ...

That Time Of Year

Hello and welcome to the festive season! Our house was all ablaze yesterday with christmas decorations and the pageant and lights. Jason in this case, is definitely more the kid than Sam and I. Actually, Sam is quite the same as his dad and for those who know Jas, one of the first things you would know about him is that he is christmas obsessed. When he was 4 he told his mum that his dream when he grew up was to be Father Christmas. That dream unfortunately, still rings true in Jas's ears :) Bless his cotton ( and holey) socks off. So I had 2 kids yesterday ( inclusive of the big kid) running around the house singing and dancing. Sam was yelling "merry christmas and a happy new your" in his little accidental american accent ( I blame sesame street). I love how he is still mixing words up, I know that wont always be the case, but for now things like 'fat battery' and 'hide and sink' and still very cute and funny. I had one of those moments where you stop ...