Category: Mark’s story

How on earth is it the end of another year again already?! As 2019 draws, or rather speeds to a close, and I look back over the past twelve months, it’s hard to believe that some of the memorable moments that seem like they only took place yesterday actually occurred many months, even up to a year ago. There are …

Up until now, every chapter of Dancing With The Black Dog has been about my own personal experiences. However this weekend I read a post on Facebook by a friend of mine, Sharna, who lost her husband, Tim, the father to her two young sons to suicide three years ago. Sharna’s words, as I told her, were without a doubt …

Half way around the world and back again. That’s how far I travelled recently for a moment that was just four thousandths of a second long. My initial motivation for the trip came from the appearance on the calendar of my high school thirty-year reunion. It was taking place in Glasgow, which according to Google is precisely 10,541 miles from …

If your reading this and you manage to get to the end of this sentence without wanting to ring my neck with both you’re hand’s then consider yourself lucky – because its’ unlikely your affected by Post Grammatical Stress Disorder (PGSD). While you might be familiar with some of the milder symptoms of PGSD, you’ve probably never heard of it …

Something didn’t seem right. This did not make any sense at all. It was October 2011, a year since I’d finally rid myself of my black dogs, Anxiety and Depression. I’d just crossed the finish line in my second – and probably last – marathon, and I could not believe what I was seeing. I say “probably last” because I’d …

“And the gold medalist, representing Great Britain – Sebastian Newbold Coe.” Sometimes it’s the most fleeting and insignificant of moments that stick out in our minds – and these ten words represent a perfect example of one of mine. Of course, this particular moment wasn’t exactly insignificant for Sebastian Newbold Coe. It was August 1984, and he’d just won the …

Exactly a year ago today, I arrived back in Glasgow for the first time in over four years. I hadn’t seen my parents, my sister’s family and most of my old friends in all that time – the longest time, in fact, between any of my previous visits. Four years! It only dawned on me just how long that really …

I’m a firm believer that the greatest and most rewarding gifts are the ones we give – all the more so if they are given anonymously, without even the possibility of a thank-you in return. However, I will always remember my 30th birthday for two of the greatest gifts I’ve ever received. The first was given to me by my …

I’ve come to the conclusion in recent years that there are two types of people in the world: those who aren’t perfect and make mistakes, and those who aren’t perfect and make mistakes. A closer analysis of these two seemingly identical curious categories, however, reveals one subtle differentiating characteristic. It can be found in the way each type of person …

I used to believe that some of life’s greatest lessons can reveal themselves in the strangest of places, the most fleeting or unexpected of moments. In more recent times, however, I started to consider that perhaps each moment, every circumstance, any event in life, no matter how big or small, represents a learning opportunity. If that were indeed the case, …