God makes beauty from ashes

I'm a lover not a fighter so I don't like conflict. But the weekend brought conflict to me and I dealt with it the best I could. It started with Jack tagging me on a post about getting a million dollars if the person you tag is someone who's always late. Haha. Very funny. So at first, I tried to joke about with it "I want half, then. Haha" But Jack took it too far, telling me how unreliable I am, that I don't consider others and that I 'continually disappoint" him. Continually, Jack?!? Really? Because I go to nearly EVERYTHING you invite me to and if I'm late, it's because I catch public transport to get to you so I'm doing my freaking best, mate. His comments were hurtful and the worst part was that it was uncalled for. I legitimately do my very best, especially for Jack. So I texted on his phone, not wanting anyone else to have access to the building argument between us. "Are we okay, Jack?" And the Jack I

 Alun has been gaslighting me all year and I've had enough. He will ask me to do something/order him something/plan something and when I do it, he loses his damn mind and will shout and have a huge fit over it "Why did you do/say/organise that? I DON'T WANT IT" and yell at me for ages, working the word "dickhead" in repeatedly. Last night, Alun SWORE BLIND he wanted a Big Mac meal. "I'm so hungry, Janet" I watch him carefully because I love him and I know he'd not eaten all day so to hear him say he wanted to FINALLY EAT something brought me so much joy. "Are you sure?" I asked as I brought up the MenuLog ap. Alun nodded and pointed to the McDonald's logo on the screen. He jumped around excitedly on the sofa "Big Mac meal, please! I want it! Big Mac, yeah yeah yeah" I laughed seeing him so happy. I pressed "order" and put in my bank details (I'll treat you, my love) and turned back to the show I was wat

 My memories of being a little girl are definitely hazy. I don't remember a lot and what I do remember makes me really sad. Anyway. I'm sitting at work (shh!) with a can of " Pasito " on my desk. For you UK readers, it's a fizzy drink. Supposedly tastes of passion fruit.  Drinking it takes me back to being about 8 years old. Dad, Mom, Jay and I were living in a sort of trailer park thing - in a structure called a "Donga" which was like a house made out of a sort of shipping container. It felt a lot like a huge caravan, to be honest. We had a close-knit community - loads of white European guys married to Filipino women (go figure) each in our own little "dongas", so I think we were all pretty happy. A few Donga's down from ours lived an old guy. In my blurry memory, he was about 100 years old. In reality he was probably younger than I am right now typing this but bear with me, ok? He had an accent and at a guess it was maybe Polish? or Swed

 that's how long it took for my friend...let's call him "Adrian"...to open a letter from me. Adrian's had a rough time of late with 2 of his closest friends dying within months of each other. I wanted to send him some support and encouragement in the post so I picked a card with a load of cartoon acorns on the front. The card read "If I had an acorn for every time I thought of you, other people would say I had too many acorns!" then inside, the card said "And they'd be wrong!" It was so cute, even in the store as I read it, I knew I loved it and wanted to buy it for someone. I wrote about how I'd be there for Adrian any time he needed to talk and that he was loved and not alone. I posted it off with a happy smile and hoped it would bless him. I think it took about a week for the card to reach Adrian...but I didn't hear anything back from him for almost 3 weeks all up...because he was scared to open his card. Adrian's anxiety had

My parents have "been together" for 38 years. And I used "been together" very loosely because in all those years, about 28 of them has been incredibly rocky. My parents have screamed, shouted, threatened and hurt each other more than I thought anyone could. They've constantly split up and gotten back together. Every time they split up, we had to move house and I had to ferry my younger brother between two homes and make it seem like an adventure "Yay!Sleepover at Dad's!" so he could live a basically normal life. On one of their MANY break ups, my parents each got a new partner. Mom went out with this Dutch guy and to this day I don't know his name because I called him "Meathead". He was like a well-meaning ogre who rode a motorbike.  Anyway, when Mom starting "seeing" Meathead, she and I got into a huge fight about how she was never home (she wasn't) and Mom decided to leave us altogether. I was in my late teens so Jay w

 There I was, sitting on a bus heading around the city. We have free buses that each do a long loop around the city - they're called "Cat" buses for some reason and I love catching them because I can cruise around Perth's prettiest places in air-conditioned comfort.  So good. Anyway. I was on the bus daydreaming away, when a guy in ragged (but clean) clothing came and sat next to me. We rode along in silence for a few moments before he leaned in  and whispered "Aliens are going to come and get me in 3 bus stops from now" Are they?  Wow! That's awesome! (I didn't question this for a second because I still look for care bears in the clouds on every single plane trip I go on). So...I excitedly waited. 2 bus stops went by. One to go. Were they going to beam him up like in an 80's style Sci Fi? Was he going to turn into sparkly particles like people did in Star Trek? Were Aliens going to suspend time and space and while we were all 'frozen' an