Hello, friend! 💌
Being Alive was started as a celebration of my own life and the miracle of still being alive. A celebration of the “almost” in “almost died”. A celebration of my continued survival (I hope). A celebration of the joys of still being alive, for as long as that remains true.
I’ve been writing publicly for 4 years (and privately for as long as I can remember), and creativity, being a writer, and using my writing to connect with others are hugely significant and positively impactful features of my life and identity.
This is a publication filled with honest and open weekly-ish personal essays (always with voiceovers) about life and it’s lessons, joys, and pain, and how these all coexist.
I share real-time reflections about whatever is on my heart and mind, and I use storytelling from both my present and past to share the valuable lessons I’ve learned and am learning along the way, practices and systems I have built for life management, and to explore, play with, nurture, and grow my creativity and my love for words and writing.
Not everything I say will resonate or connect with every single person and that is perfectly okay — take what you can and leave the rest💕
Come with me as I build a fulfilling life from the ground up! I hope you will find some value somewhere in the mess of it all! I am truly grateful you are here with me x
About me 🌟
My name is Cyrene, which is pronounced like “Serene”.
I’m 26, I’m from the UK, I live with my parents and my lil cat Cleo. As well as writing, I love sky pictures and sunflowers and the colour blue — a light, deep blue, the exact colour of my wheelchair😇 I love the sound of rain and kind words and that feeling you get when you realise someone really understands how you’re feeling.
I have a particular dislike for bullshit narratives (especially toxic positivity) and people who say they’re “real” as an excuse to be a dick. I think these pet peeves come from my deep love of words and my hate of people twisting and misusing them.
I love gingham and natural light and painting and stationery and all the sounds of my whole family talking and laughing together. I love thanking people and telling people when they’ve had a positive impact on me, and being told when I’ve done the same for someone else.
I’m a daughter, a sister, an aunty, a niece, a cousin, and a friend. I am compassionately honest, and I strive for true openness and clarity, and I don’t shy away from the difficult topics. In fact, I enjoy talking and writing about things that many others shy away from or are made uncomfortable by.
And…I am seriously ill. I have life-threatening illnesses, I am unable to eat so I am tube fed, I am on heavy immunosuppressive treatments, my abilities are extremely restricted, and my life is very medicalised and revolves around hospital appointments, treatments, and illness management. And I have been in therapy for 3 years so far due to ongoing trauma. It’s truly been a lifeline for me, and that and the way my life has panned out as a whole has taught me many lessons I’m looking forward to sharing with you.
So that’s a bit about me! Please feel free to tell me a bit about yourself, too💕
Re: paid subscribers 💷
I share things that are likely to be helpful to others and I do not want to put that behind a paywall, so I haven’t yet published any content for paid subscribers. I hope to soon at least occasionally share more personal pieces with those extremely generous people, though.
In the meantime, if you find value in what I do here or on Instagram and want to pay for a subscription (or a one-off contribution through paypal.me/diaryofacrohnie), I would be delighted. Anything gained here will go towards my care and quality-of-life💘
And if you can’t or don’t want to do so, you are still so welcome here and I hope my writing will help you in some way🥰
I’m so grateful you’re here.
Lots of love,
Cyrene 💌
