Owning My Frailty

Michael Rosen is a children’s author, poet and presenter. Two years ago he was in hospital with coronavirus in an induced coma. ‘Many Different Kinds of Love’ combines the diaries of his nurses, doctors and wife, with Rosen’s beautiful poems about his illness and recovery.

Whilst he was in rehab he wrote:

‘The Occupational Therapists taught me how to own my frailty. I have to choose: do the work or give up.’

‘Britain’s Got Talent’ on Saturday featured ‘Born to Perform’, a disability-inclusive dance group of young people from Northampton. Their joyful, heart-warming performance caused David Walliams to press the ‘Golden Buzzer’.

The dance school said that the experience was ’the best day of ours and our students’ lives…We feel overwhelmed with the positivity and support for people with disabilities.’

Young people with Down Syndrome, overcoming prejudice and negativity, were owning their frailty unapologetically.

Songs of Praise on Sunday interviewed John and Isabel Gibson. Their 24 year-old son Cameron committed suicide in 2019. They described their grief and struggles, times of desperation and falling apart.

They’ve set up a charity in memory of Cameron… John’s intends to walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats to raise awareness of suicide… their faith in God gives them confidence, reassurance and hope…

John’s turning point came when he owned his frailty:

‘I got help. I met with others who’d been through exactly the same experience, ‘Survivors of Suicide’… no judgement, no condemnation, no anything except love, understanding and compassion… and that broke the mindset.’

On Sunday at church we read Psalm 31, a psalm that’s been a prayer and comfort for many Christians in Ukraine.

We read together: ‘Praise be to the Lord, for he showed his wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city.’

We remembered the horrors of war, the fragility of life, those who own their frailty but can still say: ‘Be strong and take heart all you who hope in the Lord.’