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• THE JOURNEY IS OVER (JOURNAL 90)

  3 June, 2016

  If you were to read our journal entry for this day last year, you would read the following Today's instalment… [more]

• JOURNAL 89

  22 May, 2016

  Hi sweetheart, Sometimes I experience periods of “What if…?”. These are times when my mind seems… [more]

• JOURNAL 88

  17 May, 2016

  Hi Darling, Coming home from the hospital with a mechanical device fitted to my chest – a P.E.G. I think it… [more]

• JOURNAL 87

  13 May, 2016

  JOURNAL 87 The doctor said I can go home this morning. The surgery has had the desired effect and this new means of… [more]

• JOURNAL 86

  10 May, 2016

  JOURNAL 86 MOTHER’S DAY Hello sweetheart, I haven’t spoken to our children as to… [more]

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• Our Journey Through The Valley (42)

  12 September, 2013

  Last weekend was a mixture of affirmation and stress. Without going into detail, I'd simply say that we had a 'reality check'. Up to last weekend we seemed to be riding the wave of Karen's enthusiasm to raise money for the support of the Motor Neurone Disease Association, a group that has already done so much for Bev and I as we continue to come to terms with our predictable future.

  We were with people who had gone out of their way to make it possible for us to attend two special functions. Their many expressions of practical love were, quite frankly, overwhelming.

  It wasn't until we arrived home that the reality check 'kicked in'.  Something went 'click' within both of us as we realised that there is much that we no longer can do for ourselves and the list can only get longer.

  Our Village Chaplain (Vicki) called on us this afternoon and listened intently as we tried to answer her questions about how we are physically, emotionally and spiritually with honesty and integrity. What is "normal" for most people is no longer normal for us. The limitations and restrictions of our respective diseases are biting harder these days. Vicki made the astute observation that we will have to develop a "new normal" for us and that will be very changeable as we walk this journey through the valley.

  When she asked me what should she pray for me, I found myself saying to her (and now to you, dear friend). "Pray that the Lord will enable us to live in the present moment. We can't go back to the way things were - the old normal. Nor can we project how things may be in our future - except that it will be tougher and more demanding than is the case now. Pray that we will have grace for each day until the journey is over.