Blogs & Insights From Mama Gold
The Jackets of our Lives
It was about five years ago, when I sat shyly at the dining room table of a well-known speaker named Nikki Bush, where she spoke about the jackets of her life and what they represented.
I had heard Nikki speak for the first time after her husband, Simon, had been brutally gunned down in their home in December 2017 in a home invasion.
Nikki stood in a church in Parktown, only 18 months after having lost her husband and told her story of the six seconds that changed her life. The same church where she had married her husband. The same church where her children had been christened.
My Experiment With Visibility
After this Easter period of deep reflection, I have chosen to retreat into a period of thought leadership and writing, focusing on my mental health journey. Being active and in quiet reflection creates a gentle way forward. I am trying to create a road map of learning as I navigate this complex life in my 60s. The visibility this past year for me has been excruciating – being too exposed.
Bringing The Darkness into the Light During Mental Health Month
The aim of declaring October as Mental Health Awareness Month is to educate the public about mental health and reduce the stigma and discrimination that people with mental illness often face.
Having grown up in a family challenged by bipolar and neurodiversity, I am keenly aware of how hard it can be.
The Tale of Two Launches
In the blue eyes of my own truth- telling, I had found the oceans of my healing. Finally confronting the sea of my memories buried deep in the ocean floor for so long. And so I surfaced from the ocean and I stepped into the light of the shore. Looking up at the majesty of Table Mountain - an iconic symbol of the world.
Coming Out
At the age of 29
I had wanted to end it all
Driving weekend after weekend
Along Chapman’s Peak Drive
Wanting to drown my shame
In the cauldron of foam below
That frothed and eddied
Like a crazed dance
Against the ebony rocks below
Travellers
When I first met my husband, Friedel, he had been working and travelling overseas for four years. I had been studying and working in England for a year and travelling around Europe in brief breaks.
