Over at ThinkTwice we’ve been encouraging you to #OfferYourStory, whether it be to friends or to the worldwide web to celebrate World Mental Health Day and it seems like a good time to announce that parts of my story and some of the things I’ve learned about mental health and theology through my studies and my life so far will be published in a book due to be released in 2018 with SPCK.

I’m offering my story, not because it’s a spectacular story, but because the God who is writing it with me is spectacular. And so, in the words of Hemmingway, I’m hopefully going to

“Write hard and clear about what hurts.”

This is a book I’ve wanted to write for a very long time, in fact I started a pages document for this book when I was eighteen after I’d finished my A-Levels. Re-reading those initial thoughts I had on this book last week, I’m quite glad it never saw the light of day as it was quite heavy on the teenage angst! Now however, it feels like the right time to tell this part of my story and weave it together with the stories of those in the Bible who walked through life thousands of years ago and yet still faced challenges of managing emotions and finding God in the dark.

I’m going to be attempting (heavy on the attempting) to be blogging my way through the writing process, partly because I’m intrigued at how it will go but also because I think that sharing stories is really important and I think it might teach me a lot about the God who writes the ultimate story of redemption.

I hope you can join me on the journey of Rachael Sonali Writes  – and maybe remind me to blog if I forget!