Sometimes being a blogger feels like being an Oscar winning actress. Drawing on a magenta lip-sticked smile and pretending everything is ok when it feels as though you are standing in a boxing ring taking one low emotional blow after another. It doesn’t do you see to complain too frequently. People get to thinking you are a miserable old moo and wander off in search of cheerier pastures. But at it’s very heart, Brocantehome is about telling my truth, and to me that means not tricking you into thinking life is perfect twenty four seven, but instead acknowledging out loud when things are hurting too much to ignore. Last week Mark told me something that forced me to re-live those sorry months shortly after he left. Eight years have passed since then, but his careless announcement knocked the stuffing out of me and left me failing, really rather dramatically to bite back the tears and say what any decent person would say in the circumstances. I have been crying, on and off ever since, in mourning for what isn’t and what will never be, and above all else cross, an emotion I cannot pull off with aplomb. And so here I am, a week later, still in somewhat silly shock. Cross and guilty. Numb and sleepy. Questioning everything. Doubting it all. Last night, with my plans scuppered, I stayed in, eating an odd meal of Lancashire cheese on walnut bread with one perfect glass of Drappier Champagne. An extravagance in celebration of sorrow and exhaustion. The phone stayed quiet. The house creaked. And I lay in bed until the early hours learning how to be a badass when I rather felt like anything but. I mean really. A Badass. Even typing it makes me laugh. And though reading it felt like hanging out with my best friend, and each sentence made me giggle and wrote too many truths just under my goose-pimpled skin, never before have I chose to read a book so at odds with the state of my very own little nation. A book so necessary to helping me repair it. I told you books will find you when you need them didn’t I? Usually I would reassure myself that this too will pass. How many times have you heard me say that over the years? This too will pass. But here’s a little something that will not pass. A something I have to come to terms with in order to move on. That feels odd: to be faced with something that cannot be undone. A something that spells the end of an era. And the beginning of  a new, badass one. I have been too trusting you see. Too willing to believe in my own version of events. I have failed to be a badass and snoozed my way through any number of dozy ass years. And now it is up to me to move on. Hold my hand won’t you?
Create your own Brocante Life Book, plan Christmas, set up routines and rituals or live life the BrocanteHome way with my guided workbooks and planners.
I have taken up listening to crackly old childrens 45’s at Kiddie Records Weekly, while I type, mostly because my inner child woke up yesterday morning and told me she felt like dancing, so there was only one thing to do: show…
The joy just never ends. If you will pardon my french it’s the bloody boilers fault. I blame the boiler. I do. If I didn’t have one I wouldn’t need the constant attentions of the local plumbers dilly dallying with my pipes…
Finley won’t let me change his nappy unless I change Woof Woofs first. And put it in a bag. And put it in the bin. Twice the work and twice the money. More fool me. Does life really have to be this…
Welcome once again to my morning pages: the occasional, unedited spilling of my morning mind on to the screen. Approximately seven hundred and fifty words of stream of consciousness, transparent writing inspired by Julia Cameron. So you can dig a little deeper…
“This bugs me the worst. When the husband thinks the wife knows where everything is, huh? Like they think the uterus is a tracking device. He comes in: “Hey Roseanne! Roseanne! Do we have any cheeto’s left?” Like he can’t go…
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6 Comments
I am so sorry he is breaking your heart all over again Alison,it is so unfair,sending you love and a big hug xx
I’m thinking it’s either you have to move or your ex-husband and his wife are expecting. Or both. I can understand the prospect of moving upsetting you. It’s where so many of your hopes and dreams were born and grown, like Finn. But if you do need to move, may I suggest that perhaps it’s time? If Finn is going to be a step brother, I know he’ll be a great one. His mother has raised him to be an amazing young man. I hope the sunshine finds you today, and that the clouds have lifted. Ali x
Alison, I don’t always comment, but I’ve been reading your blog since before Mark left. You’ve been such a strong woman. I know there have been really rough patches, but after reading your blog all these years, I would testify that you already are a badass. A total badass that I admire wholeheartedly. Hang in there, Sweetie.
I just love you & your blog. But I have to say, this vague-blogging drives me crazy. I understand wanting to “talk” about the realities of your life, even the negatives, but if you’re going to just leave vague hints of what you’re talking about, I just find it frustrating & pointless. I’m happy to hear of whatever is going on in your life, as we all have our down times, but either talk about it or don’t. Hinting is just annoying. Sorry..
Oh Carol, please don’t apologise. As a reader you are perfectly entitled to your opinion. I do understand your frustration, but I think this post was more about acknowledging my feelings in that moment, than it was about telling a story if that makes sense? While it may feel pointless to you, it is both cathartic and an important moment in time for me and eventually, when I can tell you why I was upset, without hurting anyone else, I will do.
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I am so sorry he is breaking your heart all over again Alison,it is so unfair,sending you love and a big hug xx
so…what happened?
I’m thinking it’s either you have to move or your ex-husband and his wife are expecting. Or both. I can understand the prospect of moving upsetting you. It’s where so many of your hopes and dreams were born and grown, like Finn. But if you do need to move, may I suggest that perhaps it’s time?
If Finn is going to be a step brother, I know he’ll be a great one. His mother has raised him to be an amazing young man.
I hope the sunshine finds you today, and that the clouds have lifted.
Ali x
Alison, I don’t always comment, but I’ve been reading your blog since before Mark left. You’ve been such a strong woman. I know there have been really rough patches, but after reading your blog all these years, I would testify that you already are a badass. A total badass that I admire wholeheartedly. Hang in there, Sweetie.
I just love you & your blog. But I have to say, this vague-blogging drives me crazy. I understand wanting to “talk” about the realities of your life, even the negatives, but if you’re going to just leave vague hints of what you’re talking about, I just find it frustrating & pointless. I’m happy to hear of whatever is going on in your life, as we all have our down times, but either talk about it or don’t. Hinting is just annoying.
Sorry..
Oh Carol, please don’t apologise. As a reader you are perfectly entitled to your opinion. I do understand your frustration, but I think this post was more about acknowledging my feelings in that moment, than it was about telling a story if that makes sense?
While it may feel pointless to you, it is both cathartic and an important moment in time for me and eventually, when I can tell you why I was upset, without hurting anyone else, I will do.