What about the mother who is struggling with an invisible physical infirmity (eg back problems or injury post-birth) who can lift their baby but not at the same time as dealing with a buggy, AND they have depression, and so asking for help with a buggy would push them over the edge into sobbing, and they would just have to leave the bus rather than be able to move? What makes one disability trump another?
I was dismayed to see that when another friend on Facebook posted a ‘first trip out on the bus with my baby’ status, a friend of hers shared the article with the bus ruling, with the comment ‘don’t worry, now you don’t have to give up your place to a wheelchair user. No one can make you move.’ Certainly the way this is being reported is “now buggy users and wheelchair users have equal rights.”
I am wondering: do the possessions we own turn us into bloated Christians? I am slim in body, but obese in possessions – and I wonder what subtle effect this has on my spiritual life. Every time I look at a catalogue for present ideas for other people (which naturally turns into a list of things you might like for yourself), I feel like I am stuffing after-dinner mints into my face after a very large meal.
My July was happy and busy (though it should be noted that I did next to no writing. It turns out I can either live or write, but not do both at the same time). Meanwhile, the world fell apart (Ukraine, Iraq, Gaza), and the Church of England accepted Women Bishops.
I don’t know where to start, so perhaps I shall say this: every single attempt to get the NHS to treat me for my M.E. feels like a battle.
“After the king burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Take another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up.”” Jeremiah 36:27-28 Sometimes I read the newspapers […]
“I didn’t say anything. How could I? “I wanted to be the person who made a principled decision about my purchasing, the person who lived differently, who made a difference in the world. “But I also wanted to be the person who drank only the very best coffee. I was a student missions worker: I […]
Jenn LeBow is one of my favourite people. She is a spinner of stories, and her blog is always full of light and joy and colour. She and her husband (referred to simply as ‘Honey’ on her blog) have lived in many different countries, and I love learning from her global perspective and generous heart. […]
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Tanya Marlow blogs on the Bible, suffering and the messy edges of life [read more]