Saturday 13 September 2014

Backpacks and those who help lighten the load.

This post has a slightly more serious feel to it than usual. It has been inspired not by negativity but more by the pulling together and kindness of others in difficult times. I hope it will help us believe that there is hope..... Always.

I've had this idea for sometime now, about a backpack. It's what we wear to carry our troubles in big and small. We all carry pebbles. Some days they are heavier than others, the daily worries, juggling family life, work pressures, family pressures - you know the ones.  But what happens when sometimes we carry rocks for a long time. Great big heavy rocks that take our breath away and cause physical pain inside. Cause our backs to ache and our hearts to break. 
How does that impact on our daily lives and how is the burden made a little lighter.

Yesterday was a very sad day for a special friend. This friend is one of the most lovely people I know and means a lot to me. They had some tragic news.  As I sat with another lovely friend making sense of it,  I talked about the backpack analogy and how lots of us carry these unseen weights. We spent a little time just quietly being with each other and it was in those moments that I realised the key to helping carry a friends backpack isn't in trying to take it off and empty it, it's about walking beside them and holding the strap for a while as they catch their breath. The unsaid support can be the most powerful.

I am lucky. I have some special people who've helped me carry my backpack this past few years, some in ways so quiet that no one else would see. They've all helped me to make my backpack invisible in many ways to those not so close. 

It's easy during these difficult times to feel alone, maybe that no one cares or understands because their lives appear to go on as normal, but if you step back and look carefully,  you will often see the love and the help that your nearest and dearest offer. Tiny stars twinkling brightly in the darkest sky.

I am about to embark on a little project of interviewing people who carry these heavy backpacks every single day and yet somehow manage to carry on with life,  appearing to the outside world that they are "ok."  This, " I am ok" is important for self protection and to enable us to work through grief and other powerful emotions whilst also continuing a normal life for ourselves and most importantly for our children. 

I hope these coming posts will do two things. Firstly allow those who are living with difficulties or who have been through difficullt times to express how they feel, to be heard, remember a loved one or tell their story. 
Secondly, to give hope to people who maybe aren't as far on in their journey, to let them know there is hope, there is light. I think we all need to be reminded sometimes of the strength of the human spirit and the kindness of both friends and strangers.



If you feel you have a story to tell and would be happy to share it with others, please contact me via my email address maria101@sky.com
If you would like to leave a comment please do so on the FB page underneath the blog post.

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