Judith: Back In Our Arms
Out of hospital and safely back in our arms again, Judith is home. They removed the original metal plates from her skull, then dealt with the blood clot in her brain and have put temporary plates back in for a few months until they know she is fully recovered. Her vision is still very compromised, amounting to little more than burred shapes but we have been assured that with a little time this will improve. There have been no further seizures and she seems to be well clear of the catastrophe that almost killed her. Read More
Judith Seriously Ill: A message from Tyjardia;
Regular Readers of this blog site may well be wondering why the sudden long silences from it’s principle contributors, Nina & Judith. As you may have gathered recently Judith had been having some eye sight problems following a head injury at the start of the year. About a month ago a slowly deteriorating medical situation took a very sudden turn for the worse with epileptic seizures creating a dangerous situation for her. To cut a long story short we very nearly lost Judith following an almost catastrophic seizure. When she came out of the seizure she was very confused , not able to even remember her name, and when presented with a glass of water she could not work out what to do with it, that should give you some idea as to the severity of the seizure. She has had some very extensive neurological surgery and while it is still very early days it does look like she is slowly recovering. Today I watched as she took her first steps from her hospital bed, it was shaky but it was a good start. She is able to see though not very well yet, just vague shapes and outlines and she remains totally night-blind. We do not know how well her eye sight will recover, for this we must just wait. It looks as though she will remain partially sighted for some time to come. Read More here.
Sensuality, Sex & the Garden
Our societies are an odd mix of over sexualisation while completely missing the sexuality and sensuality that is all around us in the natural world. As spring starts to roll into summer it is a natural wonder that the tripping of the sun past the equinox triggers this incredible burst of life into the world, a few degrees of inclination in the planet and life leaps and bust forth in a torrent of passion, how utterly wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
I have always thought that gardens are sex made manifest, on a warm early summers night gardens are passionate and hot lovers who assault all of our senses in a frenzied bid to ravish us. I can almost feel myself being flung against the cool stone garden walls as Flora and Fauna’s delicate fingers insinuate their way under the soft linens of my dress and caress my bare skin trying to tease fertile arousal from me. As I walk the garden’s borders in the dark I feel the soft breath of Crown Imperials and Fox Gloves on my neck as the vanilla scent of clematis kisses me behind my ears, melting me, making my knees weak and my belly tingle…………………………………Read More Here.
A Little Hilke Moment: Learning Love
I had a rest day on thursday so while Judith went to collect Nicholas from speech therapy I went to collect our oldest daughter Hilke from school. On the way back she said;
“Mama, school can be so hard sometimes. When I am grown up I can stop having lessons”
I had to tell her that we never stop having lessons, that all of our lives are one long classroom, that all of life was a school. She stopped still on the sidewalk as we passed through the park and thought for a moment.
“Then why don’t they just teach the most important lessons?” Fair point I thought. She went on;
“What do you think are the most important lessons Mama?” Good question, what are the most important lessons,. I guess they are the very lessons all parents strive to teach their children every single day, but if you had to name them could you ?
Hey Baby !
Baby Noah is born: Last Saturday night I helped, indeed I was honored to help, my sister in-law deliver her baby boy into the world. Judith sat watched over us, and our children with their reassuring presence provided comfort and security for Carol as she labored through the previous day and night. The children are old hands at childbirth now, they made themselves busy making sure chilled fruit juice and ice chips were always on hand. When just after dawn little Noah finally put in his debut appearance on this stage we call life Carol’s husband Geoff cried upon seeing his new son. Noah spent the his first hour of life resting on his mother’s breast as we left them to get to know each other in peace and quiet, this what I feel is the perfect start to life, it took me back almost a year to the birth of our own Mariaske.
So Congratulations to Carol and Geoff, and welcome to baby Noah Joost. You came into this world peacefully and calmly in your parents home and I will pray that same loving spirit carries you through life.
Author: Nina.
Looking Blindness In The Eyes: I think I am one of the luckiest people in the world. The last couple of weeks have been horrid with all the doubts over the future of my eyesight, I think I have spent most of it in a state of near terror and as a result I have been very difficult to live with (neurotic bitch queen from hell who walks into things) Despite this my wife has been endlessly patient with me, goodness knows how many hours she has put in trying to ease my worries but if she had reached the point where she just wanted to put a pillow over my face I would understand. I think our children have forgiven me for my snappiness and impatience with them. They have been ready to deliver hugs at all times and their efforts to try and teach my guide dog Sissi to be my seeing eye guide dog were worth the comic value. My wider family have pitched in to help with child care and logistics, knowing I have been able to call on an almost unlimited supply of baby sitters has been a weight off my mind. Most touching of all was my sister appearing on the station platform in Amsterdam on friday as I went for my next treatment. Carol is HUGELY pregnant with her baby due day on the 20th (tomorrow as I write this). So if you were on track two at Amsterdam central yesterday, just outside the station restaurant, and saw a heavily pregnant woman being hugged into an early labor by a clearly demented woman with a guide dog as she cried her eyes out, well folks that was my dear sister and me ! How many would make a two hour train trip by herself while only a few days off giving birth just comfort her little sister.
I may have ears that don’t hear, and eyes that right now fail and drive me to panic attacks but I have much to be joyful for. I have a family who could make being deaf and blind bearable. How rich is that ! Read More
“Faith Manages”: Blindness & Other Family News
I know some of you have been wondering why Willothewisp has been relatively silent over the last couple of months. Judith was injured in town a couple of months ago, the result of a very selfish & inconsiderate English tourist, and now a problem with Judith’s eyesight has arisen from that incident. With care, attention and faith Judith’s vision will heal and return, but it is looking like it is going to be a little while and a difficult journey. At this stage no one can tell us how long Judith’s sight will remain so compromised with her low light/night vision now almost non-existent and so many problems around focus but the HBOT and high dose EPA/DHA treatment continues. Read more here.
A Book At Bed Time: Those of you who know our children will not be surprised by the uttering’s of our eldest daughter Hilke, having experienced her for yourselves you already know how sharp she is, but last night we had a perfect example of Hilke at her best. For those who do not know our daughter she is what you might call a “Smarty-pants”. I am never sure if her disability has by dint of necessity made her mind particularly sharp, or if she would have such a quick intellect regardless, but whichever it is she is a source of constant surprise. Now with her little brother rapidly learning to speak and gaining more confidence in himself all the time she might find her position being challenged. Read more…..A Book At Bed Time.
Beautiful Kitchen Maid: There is a song to fit every occasion and every moment of our lives, and the other day I found one that fit the spirit of a moment in time, a moment of domestic routine that for me turned it into a very special end to an ordinary day. As I unwrapped my scarf and winter coat the sounds of life drifted down the stairs, the kids were laughing and talking and I could hear Judith saying something in between the clutter of plates. I figured no one had been aware that I had come in, and I guessed that the dogs were probably sound asleep by the fire on a night like this so they would not have alerted Judith to me coming in so I decided to tip toe up stairs………………….Read On: Beautiful Kitchen Maid
Road Trip ! (Well Rail Trip Actually) : I grew up being taught that the journey was every bit as important as the destination so now I treasure each journey made. So what do you get if you take two adults, two children, a baby and two guide dogs, a weekend’s worth of clothes and kit and head off to the family estate in the country for the weekend ? Well to start with you get very happy kids who have wanted to see the new seasons lambs being born, you also get two very happy grandparents who get to spoil their three grandchildren senseless for three days. You also get two tired but very fulfilled mothers who get to enjoy a lovely winter’s afternoon train journey with those most precious to them. Memories are made of days like these. Read On: Road Trip (Well Rail Trip Actually).
Deaf Cat; My Pip, the smaller brother of the two Birmin cats we have is going deaf. I realized it the other day and it came as something of a shock. I asked my (deaf) son who is Pip’s constant companion if he had noticed anything and he said, in effect, “Yes, so what?”. My second shock of the day was realizing that my son did not see deafness as a big enough deal to mention, even if it was just in his cat. He is deaf, his sister is disabled, one of his mothers is deaf, he has a friend at school who has cerebral palsy and recently a foster brother who was blind and autistic, to him a disability is nothing more than a label, and not a very important one at that. Read On: Deaf Cat.
-
Sex and Motherhood, often a tricky area. Catholicism has the Virgin Mother as the ultimate role model for women, a pure and clearly chaste woman. It is a clearly unattainable goal for any woman, and one that all the way down to a subliminal level tells us women that motherhood and sex are two separate things. Movies, TV all sexualise the women without children, but once a woman have children she is de-sexualised. Discarded as flawed, perhaps because of the extra flab on our tummies, the southward journey of our breasts, or because we no longer can spend hours preening because now we have a little one who needs our time, we get the message that mothers are less sexual than the non mother. However both Nina and myself have found the opposite to be true, motherhood has made us more sexual to each other. In motherhood we have discovered whole new aspects to our femininity, one which we are happily and very busily exploring with open hearts.
Read on: Motherhood & Sex Part I
-
Tyjardia’s Favourite Post
I was reading through the WoWBlog this last weekend trying to decide which my favourite post so far. In the end I settled on one of the simplest posts, written by my Judith. It is special to me because I so vividly recall her own struggle to regain her voice after the attack, and I knew how much her son being able to speak meant to her. So with this in mind, this one of all our posts means the most to me;
“This is a letter to my son, written after what was for me a very moving day, I will keep it for when he is older. It is hard to convey to those people who can hear and speak what it is like to be deaf and mute, even harder to tell you what a monumental task it is to learn to speak when you cannot even hear yourself. But you may take it from me it is an ice covered mountain in the middle of a hostile plateau and you are up there clinging on by your finger nails. ………….”
Read on: A Letter To My Son
Nonke’s Favourite Post
“Pick your favourite post” I was told, I wish it were that simple. The fact is I love them all for many different reasons, but as I have to pick one I guess it would have to be “ Life Beautiful Life” written by Nina after she had given birth to Mariaske. As I read her post it brought back memories of all three of my births, beautiful joyous occasions each one of them, a timely reminder of that uniquely female stage in life. Knowing and loving the couple in the story as well as I do the post takes on even more significance. Mariaske marked the closing of a circle of healing in both Judith’s and Nina’s lives, a role she is filling so very, very well.
Read on: Life Beautiful Life
Willothewisp, this is a serendipitous web site about the things that interest us. You can read a little bit about each one of the four of us who make up the �Willothewisp�, and something of our lives and values. You can also learn a lot about our country, Amsterdam and Maastricht with links to tourist information and several very galleries and downloadables. You can also learn how to be healthy naturally through good nutrition, and herbs. Ladies can learn some interesting about their health including Estrogen Dominance and he philosophy behind birth in Holland.
Violence : Ten years ago Judith was the victim of a particularly violent and sadistic sexual assault. Until that day we had lived lives well insulated from such horrors, but suddenly the vileness of the world was pushed upon us. In the time since, as Judith struggled to regain her health, we as a family, came to realize that the tendrils of sexual abuse reach out across the years to corrode and destroy lives long after the actual events. This part of the Willothewisp web site started off as place for Judith to write and give voice to her own experience.
