Changing Course

So, I have been considering for some time how to share with all of you the stories of the children I laugh with, cry with, love and adore on a daily basis who have cancer and/or other blood diseases. Larry is the only person in my life, currently, who knows what goes on in my professional life and has the faintest idea about the 90% of my thought life that is devoted to these children and their struggles. Well, 90% is an overstatement... but its a lot.

I finally came to the conclusion that I'd like to give the kids pseudonyms, and tell you all their stories point blank on this blog. As I haven't used it for much else in the last three months, I can't think of anything better to do with this space than share the true stories, raw and completely unedited, of the hilarious, brave, pitiful, wise, scared, beautiful, unpredictable little people who have changed my life over the last year. Their stories might otherwise never be told.

Alongside this, I'm going to change the name of this blog- its original name, Sturey Mushe (pronounced stir-eye-mush-ay) is the Pashto greeting, "Don't be tired," and has now been outlived. Simbelmynë is its replacement: the flower that grew on the graves of the dead in Rohan, which to me represents that life and beauty endure beyond and indeed, in the place of, death. "How fair are the bright eyes in the grass! Evermind they are called, simbelmynë in this land of Men, for they blossom in all the seasons of the year, and grow where dead men rest."

Also, the title of each post will be the pseudonym given to the child whose story is going to be told below, otherwise unchanged.

More than anything, I want to tell these stories because they deserve to be told.

*Warning: some of these children live, and some of these children die.

Triumph to those who have overcome with life!

And all hail the victorious dead!