Welcome! My writing journey began a few years ago now, right here. For a very long time it was a dream of mine to start a blog, I never really knew why, I just knew it was something I wanted to do. I have a passion for many things, but especially reaching out to people, sharing my faith, stopping the stigma of mental illness, encouraging others, helping people understand their loved ones who may be struggling, and simply just talking about life. Life is such a tragic and beautiful thing. Filled with sorrows and darkness, life is heavy and engulfed in melancholy, but there is so much beauty to be found. Without the darkness of night, we would not see the stars. Without the rain, we would not see the rainbows. And at the end of the darkest night, the sun will always rise.
I originally started this page by openly admitting that I ‘suffer a lot from anxiety and depression, yet it does not define me’. I still stand by that. Since then, however, I have seen so many more things. I have seen people fall in love and marry. I have seen people grow, have children, and watched those children grow. I have seen endless beauty. But I have also seen darkness. I have seen my darkness grow thicker and heavier than I could have ever imagined. I have seen death take people I love. I have seen horrors unfolding in the world. I have seen and felt my own suicidal ideations. I have seen and experienced the inside of hospital walls for nearly two weeks straight because I was suicidal. I was labelled with a mental disorder. I have seen some of my loved ones crumble under their mental stress. I have seen more in the last two years than I have in my entire life. Some of you have, too, and I am here now, writing this, to let you know that you are not alone. There is hope. You might not see it today, or tomorrow, but it will come.
I named my blog ‘Simply Life: Confessions of a Simple Mum’, because that’s what it is; I’m simply a mum doing life, loving my friends and family, and doing the simple things. Doing a revamp, I considered changing the name, but I won’t. We are still here to talk about life, and I am still here to tell my story. There will still be moments of sheer joy and delight, and there will still be moments of utter despondency. It’s all about balance, right?
One last thing – you may have seen my logo and are wondering what it means. Well, that’s a great question and I would love to tell you! The X P symbol is the Chi Rho, which is an old Christian symbol—a Christian monogram formed by combining the first two letters of the Greek word ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ (Christos), which means “Christ.” The early Christians used the Chi Rho symbol to acknowledge Christ and Christianity. History says that the Chi Rho symbol manifested itself to Constantine in a vision before he fought the Battle of the Milivian Bridge outside Rome in 312 AD. The emperor then had the symbol engraved on the shields of his soldiers. After winning the battle, Constantine legalised the religion of Christianity across his empire. He had prominently used the Chi Rho symbol since. I have chosen to use the Chi Rho symbol on my logo as a direct reference to my faith. The other two Greek letters you see are Σ (Greek letter Sigma) and Λ (Greek letter Lambda), which are Greek for our letters S and L. I added them either side of the Chi Rho for ‘Simply Life’. For me, life is so much simpler with Christ, and it is only by His goodness and grace I am here today. Without Christ, I wouldn’t have simplicity, but most of all, I wouldn’t have peace even in the darkness and chaos.
I’m ready now to share more of my story with you. If you would like to join me on this journey and follow my blog and the posts from my page, please do, and subscribe to Simply Life via email to receive new posts when they are published. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at any time if you have any comments, queries, satirical poems, or song lyrics!
Love and blessings,
Julie xo