There is something I have never quite understood about the human heart.We can walk into a shop and spend hundreds, sometimes thousands, searching for the perfect puppy.The right breed. The right colour. The right markings. The right little face looking back at us.And yet, somewhere not very far away, behind the metal bars of a … Continue reading Perhaps Love Has Four Paws 🐾
Documenting my own life and thoughts
Cape Verde: Where Dreams Swim Beneath the Waves and Tiny Turtles Begin Their Journey
I have always found the ocean utterly fascinating.There is something mesmerising about watching the waves roll towards the shore, knowing that beneath that seemingly endless expanse of blue lies an entire world carrying on with its life, completely unaware of ours.A world of extraordinary creatures, hidden shipwrecks, breathtaking underwater landscapes and mysteries that we have … Continue reading Cape Verde: Where Dreams Swim Beneath the Waves and Tiny Turtles Begin Their Journey
The Poppy: A Little Red Flowers, A Thousand Untold Stories.
Welcome back to another little piece of my thoughts, my family history, and something that has been weighing rather heavily upon my heart.Today, I want to talk about a flower.A small, delicate, blood-red flower that grows quietly in fields and along roadsides, its fragile petals trembling in the slightest breeze.The poppy.Such a simple little thing, … Continue reading The Poppy: A Little Red Flowers, A Thousand Untold Stories.
River Angels by Stacey Reynolds: Where Grief Meets Hope
The O’Briens have taken me from the wild coast of Ireland to a beach in Carolina, then through the shadowed streets of Dublin. By book four, I knew this family could draw me into almost any story.Still, River Angels carried me further than I expected.This time, Stacey Reynolds takes us to Brazil, where Liam O’Brien … Continue reading River Angels by Stacey Reynolds: Where Grief Meets Hope
Taking Up Space, Apologetically – When You Get Trapped Inside Your Own Head.
Sometimes the hardest place to escape from is your own head.I know that sounds dramatic.But there are days when I can take one tiny thought, something so insignificant that another person probably wouldn't even notice it, and somehow build an entire case against myself from it.A message feels slightly different.Someone seems quieter than usual.I remember … Continue reading Taking Up Space, Apologetically – When You Get Trapped Inside Your Own Head.
Fio by Stacey Reynolds: The Courage to Begin Again
When I first met Fiona Reilly in Raven of the Sea, I knew her through the hurt she had caused Michael O’Brien. I was firmly on his side, and I did not expect to find myself hoping for a story of her own.Then Stacey Reynolds wrote Fio.This novella fits after Shadow Guardian and before River … Continue reading Fio by Stacey Reynolds: The Courage to Begin Again
Falling in Love Is the Easy Part, Staying Takes Heart.
Falling in love is the easy part.Well... relatively speaking.It is the butterflies.The excitement when their name appears on your phone.The ridiculously long conversations about absolutely nothing.The first kiss.The first I love you.The feeling that somehow, amongst billions of people wandering around this enormous planet, you have found your person.Falling in love can feel almost effortless.Staying … Continue reading Falling in Love Is the Easy Part, Staying Takes Heart.
Dear Future Descendant… Somewhere Among the Sands of Saudi Arabia, a Piece of My Heart Will Always Remain.
Somewhere between the golden dunes and endless skies, there is a teenage girl still laughing with her dad, blissfully unaware that one day she would give anything to return. Dear Future Descendant,Welcome back to another little piece of my life.Today, I want to take you somewhere rather special.Somewhere far away from the green fields, winding … Continue reading Dear Future Descendant… Somewhere Among the Sands of Saudi Arabia, a Piece of My Heart Will Always Remain.
Dear Future Descendant… This Was England in 2026 – The things the history books probably won’t tell you.
If you are reading this in fifty or perhaps even a hundred years from now, then I imagine 2026 is simply history to you.A date. A line on a timeline. Perhaps something you once studied at school.There will be records telling you who was Prime Minister, what was happening politically, how many people lived in … Continue reading Dear Future Descendant… This Was England in 2026 – The things the history books probably won’t tell you.
Shadow Guardian by Stacey Reynolds: Love Among the Shadows
First, Stacey Reynolds took me to a cottage beside the Irish sea. Then she led me across the ocean, where a lantern glowed beside a Carolina beach. By the time I reached the third book in The O’Brien Tales, I thought I knew what it felt like to step into an O’Brien story.Then I opened … Continue reading Shadow Guardian by Stacey Reynolds: Love Among the Shadows
In Each Moment, We Are Different From the Moment Before.
I have been thinking about time lately.Not time in the big, dramatic sense.Not years, decades, birthdays or anniversaries.Just moments.Those tiny pieces of time that pass so quickly we barely notice them.Because I think there is something rather extraordinary about a moment.We enter every single one as a slightly different person from the one who existed … Continue reading In Each Moment, We Are Different From the Moment Before.
Raven of the Sea by Stacey Reynolds: Where My Love for the O’Brien Tales Began.
Have you ever opened a book and felt, within a few pages, that you might have found somewhere you wanted to stay?That is how Raven of the Sea felt to me.I picked it up expecting a story. Instead, I found myself beside the wild Atlantic, with the wind in my hair and the sort of … Continue reading Raven of the Sea by Stacey Reynolds: Where My Love for the O’Brien Tales Began.
Love, the Way Our Mum Taught It.
Our mum did not simply raise three daughters, she grew us. She tended us like a careful gardener with fierce devotion in her bones and gentleness in her hands. She loved us not in halves or portions, but in great, sweeping tides that wrapped around our childhood and carried us safely forward.She has always been … Continue reading Love, the Way Our Mum Taught It.
A Love That Started Before Words
There is a quiet magic in being born alongside another heartbeat. From the very beginning, life arrives shared, never solitary. To be a twin is to enter the world already held in companionship, already familiar with love before it ever needs a name.Before memory, before language, there is closeness. Someone breathed beside you, moved with … Continue reading A Love That Started Before Words
A Brain That Dances Out of Step
There are days when I feel as though my mind was assembled with different instructions than everyone else’s. As if somewhere along the way, I missed a quiet memo about how thoughts are supposed to line up neatly, wait their turn, and exit the mouth only after being fully introduced. Mine do not wait. They … Continue reading A Brain That Dances Out of Step
Watching the World Lean Toward Fire.
Once upon a not so distant time, England and America moved through history like old lovers who knew each other’s steps by heart. We were not perfect, never gentle all the time, but when the night grew long and the world trembled, we reached for one another without question. There was comfort in that closeness, … Continue reading Watching the World Lean Toward Fire.
Unarmored.
I feel the world before it speaks,a shift in tone, a passing glance,the way a room inhales too sharplyor joy arrives without advance.My skin is thinner than most days allow,words land heavy, even kind ones do.I hear the things you didn’t mean to sayand carry them longer than you knew.I love in floods, not careful … Continue reading Unarmored.
Life Measured in Love, Not Milestones.
2025 was not a year of milestones or glossy triumphs. It was a year of endurance. A year where simply getting through the day felt like an act of quiet rebellion.Mentally, physically, emotionally, this year asked everything of me and often gave very little back. Living with autoimmune disease is like sharing your body with … Continue reading Life Measured in Love, Not Milestones.
