This is what we do when we’re first in love – we gush about the stories of our love and make long lists of what we love about our beloved.
And when that love has gone on for many years – still, we tell the stories of our love.
We tell our love stories to remember our history, the path we forged alongside one another, the foundations and pillars that hold us together.
Whilst still married, I have fallen in love with another who pursued me for all that he needed before he then rejected me, and abused power and position to save himself.
I have suffered from depression, and I know the madness that has such power that it convinced me that my children would be better off if I was dead.
We think we know the momentous and portentous events of our lives, because we have them mapped out with the big things – proposals, births, funerals – but love and grief have their own rules, and they funnel their potency into the little details, the ordinary objects of life, so that we are caught unawares by our emotion even whilst we are going about our daily business.
“We’re married,” I whispered, like it was a secret, and we peeked at each other over large brown menus, the evening air still duvet-warm. It had been an early sailing and long drive, but we were here, and it was just as he said it would be. We were sitting in the square, surrounded by […]
The car pulled up to the church, and the driver helped me out. I stepped onto the path, my silk-white high heels making the tiniest crunch on the gravel. And then I looked down at my dress. My dress! At some point on the journey it had turned yellow. It was bright yellow. My dress […]
Ruthie Davies shines with a passion for Jesus in everything she writes. It is a passion that goes deep, that has been tested in the considerable fire of grief. She has a beautiful Welsh accent that can be heard in this moving interview. Here is her story: For me, suffering cued neither the beginning […]
I don’t remember when it was – perhaps four or six months after the birth. I remember the place – sitting across from Jon, my arms on the big oak dining table, eating a tired dinner with tears. “Why aren’t you mad at God?” I asked him. “You are going through all of this, just […]
What’s your love language? Love-languages are the ways in which we express and receive love. If you don’t yet know yours, I can recommend taking this fun quiz to find out! There are five love-languages, according to Gary Chapman: quality time, words of affirmation, gift-giving, physical touch and acts of service. These are all […]
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Tanya Marlow blogs on the Bible, suffering and the messy edges of life [read more]