{"id":1064,"date":"2016-09-25T15:14:29","date_gmt":"2016-09-25T15:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=1064"},"modified":"2016-10-11T01:34:58","modified_gmt":"2016-10-11T01:34:58","slug":"a-tale-of-two-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=1064","title":{"rendered":"A Tale of Two Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rose-90821_960_720\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

I know two women. They are great and strong in their own ways, but they both need my help. I help them up the stairs. I help them into and out of cars. I help them to the bathroom. I help them eat. I help keep them motivated.<\/span><\/h3>\n

They have a lot of pain: Aching joints, bloated stomachs, back problems, nausea, bouts of depression. What they have, they wish they could be done with it. <\/span><\/h3>\n

They get emotional. They cry and they say mean things. They apologize and can\u2019t shake feelings of guilt. Sometimes they sit despondent. Sometimes they feel happy — peaks of happiness taller than the lowliest of their many valleys.<\/span><\/h3>\n

They crack jokes at their own expense. They laugh off silly comments that actually hurt their feelings. They know we don\u2019t mean it. They bury the small things. <\/span><\/h3>\n

They are scared of what comes next, but they\u2019re also curious. The pain will end, and when it ends the next step is what they make of it. They wonder what the future holds.<\/span><\/h3>\n

They grow angry. They get angry at me, at everyone, at the world. They often feel alone, and they doubt anyone can understand their feelings. Sometimes they curse the stars. <\/span><\/h3>\n

They explore their faith. In God, in nature, in their doctors, in their family, in themselves. They question their worth, and because of this they feel guilty. <\/span><\/h3>\n

They feel like a burden, that they could be more and do more. They feel bad. They want to do more for the ones they love. To them love is action, love is truth, and love is unconditional. Love is helping out, love is pitching in. They can\u2019t love in this way, but they find new ways to love. <\/span><\/h3>\n

They love by putting on a brave face. They protect us from feeling sad. They assure us everything is okay and change the topic if it grows too grim. They smile through discomfort.<\/span><\/h3>\n

I know two women. One, my mother, fought and passed from cancer. The other, my wife, gave birth to our\u00a0beautiful baby boy. These are the best and strongest women I know. <\/span><\/h3>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know two women. They are great and strong in their own ways, but they both need my help. I help them up the stairs. I help them into and out of cars. I help them to the bathroom. I help them eat. I help … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19,18,17,20],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6aT9B-ha","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":867,"url":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=867","url_meta":{"origin":1064,"position":0},"title":"Eff it! Why I (Sometimes) Write with Bad Words #Amwriting","date":"June 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently a conversation sparked up in the Fantasy Writers and Readers group. As with any such group, many people hold strong personal convictions about swearing and the use of bad words when writing fiction. Suffice it to say, as I am a writer who tends to get a little naughty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":888,"url":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=888","url_meta":{"origin":1064,"position":1},"title":"5 Questions with Christian Fantasy Author Hope Ann","date":"June 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"What follows is the first of many author interviews I'll be posting throughout the summer. Hope Ann is a Christian Fantasy author and contributing member of Fantasy Writers and Readers Facebook Group. What are the challenges of being a devoutly Christian author? Quite frankly, the challenges of being a Christian\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Author Interviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":748,"url":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=748","url_meta":{"origin":1064,"position":2},"title":"Shellycoat the Bogle and Old Gregg #FolkloreThursday","date":"February 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Bogle (Bogey Man) is a type of Scottish\/Northumbrian folkloric creature. One particular Bogle, Shellycoat, is somewhat of a trickster, preferring to confuse and frighten its victims instead of using violence. Shellycoat wears -- you might suspect -- a coat of sea-shells adorned with seaweed. Shellycoat is known to play\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":507,"url":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=507","url_meta":{"origin":1064,"position":3},"title":"Review of Ravens in the Sky by Will Bly (Michelle Reads)","date":"November 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I wrote this review awhile back, but as a family member I am unable to post it to amazon. At the time, I had just got finished reading the final proof of RITS and I was super excited about its completion. I had fun interpreting the story and sharing my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":797,"url":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=797","url_meta":{"origin":1064,"position":4},"title":"Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman","date":"April 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Four of Five Stars The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman, is an 'adult' fairy tale novel (a novella, really, or close to it) that follows a middle-aged narrator who is inexplicably drawn back to the lane he grew up on. It was here, some years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academia"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":988,"url":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=988","url_meta":{"origin":1064,"position":5},"title":"5 Questions with fantasy author J.M. Butler (Jessica B. Fry)","date":"July 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I was recently able to toss a few questions J.M. Butler's way. We talk about the influence of her grandfather on her writing, the blessing that is Wattpad, and the headaches she experiences when she doesn't write. The strongest aspect of your popularity seems to be your presence on Wattpad.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Author Interviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1064"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1087,"href":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions\/1087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}