A big announcement and a couple other little things I want to share with you all!

A few days ago, I got extended an invitation to be a guest blogger on The Behold Project. The person in charge of the blog asked me if he could see some of my work, so I sent him my website. A few minutes later, he wrote back and told me he liked what I write, and invited me to be a guest blogger! I can’t believe it! I’m still sitting here absolutely stunned by this.

The Behold Project is a Christian approach to rethink how we deal with mental illness. There’s entirely too much stigma that goes along with it, and I’ve been trying my best on my own to show that it’s nothing to fear, but something to try to understand so we don’t lose more people to this terrible problem.

Now that the virus pandemic is a harsh and cruel reality worldwide, I worry about those of us who have struggles with this issue because of the lockdowns. We sufferers of mental disorders are lonely as it is, being prisoners of our own heads, so it’s going to be quite frustrating to try to stave off those dark thoughts even more because we can’t socialize with friends and trusted family to help keep us grounded.

Which leads me to my next big announcement: There are two series I’m going to be working on doing throughout this lockdown (and beyond, honestly, on at least one of them!). One’s going to be Saints of the Plague, in which I will be talking a little bit about a Saint who’s either had direct experience with a plague in their lifetime, or they have an ‘occupation’ in helping someone with plague issues. There will be once a week a post about a Saint, I’ll share a blurb about them and a prayer that I’ll write for people to pray. I’m going to include some Saints who have ‘occupation’ to intercede for ‘essential workers,’ which … I have to wonder… will we ever get used to saying that? What a new normal, eh? I’ll also be including Saints who help with mental struggles (ie St Dymphna, my patron Saint) as an added bonus of sorts to kind of hopefully help ease our frustrations a little bit.

After all, you wouldn’t ask someone who’s never even held a baby to babysit your child, right?

Same goes with feelings of profound loneliness, or even suffering. You wouldn’t talk to someone who doesn’t ‘get it’ about what’s bothering you, you wouldn’t really get too far.  That being said, I'm going to put a little something together for you all to help ease your nerves a little bit.  My goal is to make you feel more connected to our extended family and to feel at-ease about reaching out to them and asking, 'Hey, a little help would be really appreciated!'

There's going to be some renovations done around here, too, but for now, for the sake of readability, I had to use a template until I can get the coding hammered out and get this place looking how I want.  Can't have y'all coming in here tripping over boxes and plastic, no way to be able to be comfortable, sit down with some tea and enjoy a conversation, right?