All Entries in the "Thoughts" Category

One more blessing.

We’ve had so many beautiful words of condolence. I don’t think I’ll be posting anymore blessing, I can’t take anymore and you probably can’t either. However this final blessing tore me up. So here it is.

A blessing for Roxanne Carris

The Gaelic blessing below was given to us at our wedding by my best man. Six years later and our friend Patrick suggested the same blessing for Roxie to help her little soul safely to the other side. Separately I had chosen a piece of music for the funeral, Attendite, performed by the Libera Boys Choir. And the lyrics? Yes, the words from the same blessing…perfect.

Thoughts on grief from John O’Donohue

We were very moved by this blessing for grief. The moving and poignant words were read for us at the funeral of our baby, Roxanne. They were written by the Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue and come from his book of blessings called Benedictus.

Gordon Brown’s words of condolence to David Cameron

Of course we are not alone in our grief and we share our sadness with David Cameron who lost his six year old son yesterday and with Gordon Brown who also lost his daughter back in 2001 just a few days after she was born.

Letter to the head of our community.

Dear G*****,

Thank you for agreeing to help us with the funeral of our baby girl, Roxanne. We understand it is a lot to ask and we are very grateful and honored for your assistance.

Please do not think we are asking you to be a minister or priest, we understand completely that this is unusual for you, we ask only that you can offer some words on behalf of yourself and all the other residents of P******.

My poor baby girl is dead.

I’ve spent the last year and a half on a journey of what I hoped would be self improvement. I gave up the booze, I’ve tried to be a good husband, I’ve learnt to control many of my fears and I’ve prepared myself for being a father. This blog was all part of the process.

Having the discipline to write, just write without too much judgement, without trying to prove anything, to just put it out there and keep putting it out there.

Getting it right as a first time father.

I’m no daddy blogger but I think I can be forgiven a few posts on upcoming fatherhood.

With only a few weeks to go thoughts turn to the birth. How will I cope? Male friends have been pretty hopeless on the subject of pregnancy, childbirth and fatherhood in general. “You’re never going to sleep again” does not count as practical information.

Here’s a list of things to do and ways to be for a first time father during childbirth. I will follow my own advice and in a few weeks I can report back on my success or lack thereof.

Goody, Johnson and Cyrus – Fear and Loathing continued

Less than a week ago I published a post discussing why there seemed to be an increase in “celebrities in trouble” stories at the moment. I wasn’t a 100% convinced by my own theory at the time, but  her we are, not more than a week later, and we now have three more public figures getting a kicking for, lets face it, pretty much fuck all.

Clarkson, Thatcher & Bale – Fear and Loathing

I’ve come to a realization regarding some of the minor news stories circulating at the moment. Such is my loathing of rolling news that I have found it necessary to look behind the news items to get some sort of perspective on the current climate, the stories themselves are rubbish.

There seems to be an increase in “celebrities in trouble” stories lately. The three at the moment are Carol Thatcher’s “racist” comment, Jeremy Clarkson’s “one-eyed” comment in the UK and Christian Bale’s outburst in the States.