18/09/2026
My neighbour Helen gave me Bravely, we have a mutual love of Merida of DunBroch. A proper kind of princess. Wild hair, questionable manners, happier on a horse than behaving appropriately. đ
I wasnât expecting a book about Merida to hold quite such a mirror up to my own life. Perhaps Helen did
Years after Brave, Merida has travelled and explored, returning home believing herself changed by everything she has seen.
But DunBroch is exactly as she left it.
Comfortable. Familiar. Loved.
And completely stuck.
Then comes Feradach, a god of ruin, whose purpose is to destroy what has stopped growing so something new can take its place.
And THAT got me. It cut close to the bone.
Because I have spent the last few months dismantling a life.
We left Ireland. I gave away rooms of belongings. Things I once wanted, valued and carefully stored suddenly became just⊠things.
And amongst all that shedding, I kept describing this move as coming home.
Then this bloody book asks:
What if destruction isnât always the opposite of creation?
What if sometimes the old thing has to come apart because we have finished becoming who we were inside it?
Merida thinks everyone around her needs to change. What she doesnât see at first is that she has confused movement with transformation.
Ouch. đ
You can cross countries. Clear houses. Change schools. Learn new languages. Start again.
And still carry the old version of yourself in the suitcase.
Thatâs what Iâve been shedding.
Not Ireland. Not my belongings. Not even my old life.
The conditioning underneath it.
The parts that learned not to be too visible, too enthusiastic, too much. The strange ways shame can disguise itself as humour, belonging and even affection.
Bravely is about creation, stagnation, destruction and creation again.
About knowing what deserves protecting, what needs to evolve and what we keep alive simply because it has always been there.
Sometimes coming home isnât returning to where you were.
Sometimes itâs allowing who you were to become who youâre becoming.
And apparently I needed Merida of DunBroch and an ancient god of destruction to tell me that.
Naturally. đ
