Writing
Love, Jim
As the meme goes, "Our grandparents had to go to war, you just have to sit on the couch." I’d been sitting on the couch. I wondered what it felt like to go to war.
Forty Two Letters
Do you know what it feels like to be blindsided by your past self? When I planned out the letters to write before I died, I didn’t mean to make "future me" cry.
Bleeding
Say ‘vulva’, shake hands with gusto, talk about menopause over dinner. Do not quiet yourself.
A Few Things Cancer People Know
Look. Your body is trying to kill you, and now you’re taking medicine that's trying to kill your body. It is not the time to become a spirulina-loving Goop-reader.
Why Therapy Is Not A Dirty Word
In this age of the over-share, I’m a bit bewildered at how stigmatised mental health treatment still is. I can bounce out of work early for an acupuncture treatment, but tell colleagues I’m off to my psych appointment and they go a bit blinky and weird.
No More Fucking Lasagne
The worst thing I could imagine (besides my own premature death, obvs) was the arse tumour nicking my sense of humour, my very sense of self. Give me cancer, but for godsakes don’t take away my irony.
Long Haul with Littlies (the dirty truth)
If there’s a ‘How To’ on flying with littlies, I’ve read it. And guess what? They all say the same thing, and they’re all written by dirty liars.
Reflections on 2018
It’s oddly liberating to be able to legitimately claim ‘I’ve had the worst year of my life’. But it’s also strange to know others agree. I was having a blood draw the other day and ran through the headlines of my cancer diagnosis and treatment with the nurse. ‘Wow’, she said, head bent over my arm, ‘you’ve had a terrible year’.
Don’t Stop At Flowers
Here are five very practical, very easy things you can actually DO for someone who’s been recently diagnosed.
The Only Child
I would tell anyone who’d listen that we tried, we wanted, we couldn’t. Which is all a touch miserable, and pretty offensive to the one excellent child we did manage to have.
Lessons from a Former Elf
It was my first shift at Christmas Kingdom in Australia’s largest department store and I was ready to bring on all of the festive cheer. And, traumatise young children, it seemed.