If hope is a team sport, and I believe it is, I don’t just wear the team hat, I hold you in my heart and in my prayers as I watch from the sidelines (with great hope) as you enter this next inning. 🙏❤️❌⭕️
😭 thank you, friend. I can feel that!! I’m so deeply tired. I feel like the little ways I’ve still been able to show up for the book are largely because of people like you holding me in their hearts and sending me energy.
Hugs. 😭 on the tired part. And all the rest. Hope can be a heavy weight, but it also carries us. I guess it’s the paradox of it all, and the wonder and mystery that keeps us going when we know we barely can carry on. I pray for rest too.
“I’ve stopped trying to bud belief in the bitter cold. I haven’t forgotten my faith. I’m letting it lie fallow.”
Thank you for these words and the freedom they give me to let my faith lie fallow at times when the pain and silence feels oppressive. This imagery releases so much shame. Your writing is such a gift to all of us, and I hate the nonstop pain you are enduring. ❤️
I’m so grateful these words are freeing for you. That is my hope. I don’t think many of us have been given an alternative to despair or calling it all a lie. Far too rarely are we given permission and an example of being in the liminal space where darkness seems realer than light.
Thank you for writing a prayer for all of us that are suffering in some form. That shows what a selfless, good human you are. You are in such pain, in a world of not really knowing the outcome but still thinking of all of us. Thank you thank you thank you. You are always in my prayers! Tuesday can not get here fast enough for me!!!!
The web of interdependence really does sustain me. It is my joy to hold you all in my heart as I hold my own pain. Truly. To pray for you all while in that room was a deep honor.
Yes. thank you! The spiritually abusive communities I was part of were about perfection and image not personhood and interdependence. No room for being human when you have to look perfect.
I think I wrote you about finishing my own manuscript for my memoir about surviving a life of trauma. It opens with waking up from brain surgery. It was suppose to end in triumph.. A week after finishing it, I found out the tumor had grown back and I needed the surgery all over again. I preordered your book and will be reading it here in Montana while you are at the wedding. And... I commit to pray for you. I have many disabilities from brain surgeries and your words are changing how I feel about my life. ❤️PS... I also became a therapist and had to give up my practice due to my health issues.
Thank you for sharing that, Linda. I definitely didn’t expect triumph. My ongoing health challenges are still so hard. But I didn’t expect a tumor. You know the deep pain of that more than even I do.
Oh, how I would love to be there! I'll try to work it out. I'm in Ennis...an hour away, and these days, 6PM is my bedtime. LOL I preordered the Kindle version but if I can make it to Bozeman, I'll buy the hardcover and have you sign it!
Thank you! Two surgeries, 40 sessions of HBOT, and my lesions are substantially smaller in both distal femurs. It’s been beyond hard, but I am beyond grateful. Still hurts, but damn it’s better than I thought it could get. We’ll see what the future holds. And now to my next major surgery…
Three new books have arrived, each written by a woman who writes in my heart language. The first two came before yours but I didn’t start them. I once held a book for seven years before reading it at what was clearly “the perfect time.” Yours will be my feeding, my first feast of this trinity of treasures, and as I read I will continue to pray for your journey.
Oh, thank you so much, Sallie! I’m honored. I hope you enjoy it. Fair warning—there is a lot of cussing! 😉 But you probably expected that at this point! There’s also a lot of love.
Oh we’d love to, but Ken will be in WA and I’ll be at our grandkids’ school show. But do let us know if you have one at GSS this summer, please. Maybe you’ve met our family- they are there.
As for the new face, your heart is what is most recognizable, so you will always be seen.
KJ, this might be a weird comment so feel free to skip/cringe/etc.
Three summers ago, when you were writing about those brutal days of survival, I fell and was being diagnosed with a severe pain condition that has changed almost everything about my life. Fast forward to now, I'm facing another diagnosis and major surgery if I pass the last diagnostic test that I might not because of the pain condition I have. I see my surgeon on *June 4th* to go over the diagnostic test's results and find out if he'll do the surgery which could provide relief to another branch of chronic pain that leaves me unable to eat much most days.
All that to say, your words have meant so much to me then and now. Holding on "the hope [I] don’t even feel like [I] have" alongside you. I'll be praying the prayer you wrote for us for you on June 4th.
The last time I pre-ordered one of your books, I got two copies - one for me and one for a precious friend who had terminal cancer. We knew we probably wouldn't get to finish the book together, but we read a few pages over Marco Polo out loud every night during her last few months. In her last days, I read it out loud at her bedside. Your words meant so much to her and so much to me. I can't help but cry as I pre-order just one copy of your newest book and I can't wait to read what I know will be healing words within it.
I needed your words today, KJ. I've been judging myself for my frustration, despair, difficulty connecting with God while I walk (actually roll or crutch) through a difficult season. You remind us all having this human experience and that it's possible, somehow, to bless every fucking aspect. I'm starting with acceptance to prepare the ground for blessing. You are on my mind and in my heart with what you're going through. I pray for your strength and a felt sense of God's presence.
If hope is a team sport, and I believe it is, I don’t just wear the team hat, I hold you in my heart and in my prayers as I watch from the sidelines (with great hope) as you enter this next inning. 🙏❤️❌⭕️
😭 thank you, friend. I can feel that!! I’m so deeply tired. I feel like the little ways I’ve still been able to show up for the book are largely because of people like you holding me in their hearts and sending me energy.
Hugs. 😭 on the tired part. And all the rest. Hope can be a heavy weight, but it also carries us. I guess it’s the paradox of it all, and the wonder and mystery that keeps us going when we know we barely can carry on. I pray for rest too.
“I’ve stopped trying to bud belief in the bitter cold. I haven’t forgotten my faith. I’m letting it lie fallow.”
Thank you for these words and the freedom they give me to let my faith lie fallow at times when the pain and silence feels oppressive. This imagery releases so much shame. Your writing is such a gift to all of us, and I hate the nonstop pain you are enduring. ❤️
I’m so grateful these words are freeing for you. That is my hope. I don’t think many of us have been given an alternative to despair or calling it all a lie. Far too rarely are we given permission and an example of being in the liminal space where darkness seems realer than light.
“The miracle was always about being fully human.” amen amen amen thank you for your willingness to share. Always lands in my heart.
I’m so grateful it does. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Thank you for writing a prayer for all of us that are suffering in some form. That shows what a selfless, good human you are. You are in such pain, in a world of not really knowing the outcome but still thinking of all of us. Thank you thank you thank you. You are always in my prayers! Tuesday can not get here fast enough for me!!!!
The web of interdependence really does sustain me. It is my joy to hold you all in my heart as I hold my own pain. Truly. To pray for you all while in that room was a deep honor.
I love you article! It is raw, honest and real! I found, that Spiritual Abuse never allowed anyone, to feel and be human. Love your work!
Yes. thank you! The spiritually abusive communities I was part of were about perfection and image not personhood and interdependence. No room for being human when you have to look perfect.
You are the best. Those prayers🙌
🥹 It’s wild that I prayed that before my bones were diagnosed as necrotic. And it’s wild to be able to pray again, with words, a little.
It is wild, stunningly wild.😳😵
So, so thankful & encouraged too, that you can again. xx
🥹🥹🙏🏼
I think I wrote you about finishing my own manuscript for my memoir about surviving a life of trauma. It opens with waking up from brain surgery. It was suppose to end in triumph.. A week after finishing it, I found out the tumor had grown back and I needed the surgery all over again. I preordered your book and will be reading it here in Montana while you are at the wedding. And... I commit to pray for you. I have many disabilities from brain surgeries and your words are changing how I feel about my life. ❤️PS... I also became a therapist and had to give up my practice due to my health issues.
Thank you for sharing that, Linda. I definitely didn’t expect triumph. My ongoing health challenges are still so hard. But I didn’t expect a tumor. You know the deep pain of that more than even I do.
PS I have a book signing at Country Bookshelf in Bozeman on the 26th at 6pm! I hope I get to meet you! https://countrybookshelf.com/event/2026-05-26/author-talk-kj-ramsey
Oh, how I would love to be there! I'll try to work it out. I'm in Ennis...an hour away, and these days, 6PM is my bedtime. LOL I preordered the Kindle version but if I can make it to Bozeman, I'll buy the hardcover and have you sign it!
No words… only ache and prayers for profound relief for you. You have been to places in your soul that I didn’t even know existed……
I did not know these places existed either. I certainly am always on an adventure, even if it’s not where I wanted to go. Haha
Thank you!!
Congrats on the successful AVN surgery. Your surgeon seems like a very special man. <3
Thank you! Two surgeries, 40 sessions of HBOT, and my lesions are substantially smaller in both distal femurs. It’s been beyond hard, but I am beyond grateful. Still hurts, but damn it’s better than I thought it could get. We’ll see what the future holds. And now to my next major surgery…
Three new books have arrived, each written by a woman who writes in my heart language. The first two came before yours but I didn’t start them. I once held a book for seven years before reading it at what was clearly “the perfect time.” Yours will be my feeding, my first feast of this trinity of treasures, and as I read I will continue to pray for your journey.
Oh, thank you so much, Sallie! I’m honored. I hope you enjoy it. Fair warning—there is a lot of cussing! 😉 But you probably expected that at this point! There’s also a lot of love.
Fair warning, 71 years into the journey I can handle it 😎
AND if I didn’t know there was a lot of love, it wouldn’t have come my way 💜
TRUTH. Thank you for saying that.
PS it’s probably too far to drive, but if you and Ken are free tomorrow evening, you are cordially invited to my book signing at Tattered Cover!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kj-ramsey-live-at-tattered-cover-colfax-tickets-1986838676967
I am hoping to have a COS launch party at our church (GSS) this summer sometime after I get my new face though!
Oh we’d love to, but Ken will be in WA and I’ll be at our grandkids’ school show. But do let us know if you have one at GSS this summer, please. Maybe you’ve met our family- they are there.
As for the new face, your heart is what is most recognizable, so you will always be seen.
Absolutely beautiful and wonderful and heart-wrenching. I can't wait to receive your book tomorrow!
May God be with you and your physicians. Praying for protection of your face and strength for the healing.
KJ, this might be a weird comment so feel free to skip/cringe/etc.
Three summers ago, when you were writing about those brutal days of survival, I fell and was being diagnosed with a severe pain condition that has changed almost everything about my life. Fast forward to now, I'm facing another diagnosis and major surgery if I pass the last diagnostic test that I might not because of the pain condition I have. I see my surgeon on *June 4th* to go over the diagnostic test's results and find out if he'll do the surgery which could provide relief to another branch of chronic pain that leaves me unable to eat much most days.
All that to say, your words have meant so much to me then and now. Holding on "the hope [I] don’t even feel like [I] have" alongside you. I'll be praying the prayer you wrote for us for you on June 4th.
The last time I pre-ordered one of your books, I got two copies - one for me and one for a precious friend who had terminal cancer. We knew we probably wouldn't get to finish the book together, but we read a few pages over Marco Polo out loud every night during her last few months. In her last days, I read it out loud at her bedside. Your words meant so much to her and so much to me. I can't help but cry as I pre-order just one copy of your newest book and I can't wait to read what I know will be healing words within it.
I needed your words today, KJ. I've been judging myself for my frustration, despair, difficulty connecting with God while I walk (actually roll or crutch) through a difficult season. You remind us all having this human experience and that it's possible, somehow, to bless every fucking aspect. I'm starting with acceptance to prepare the ground for blessing. You are on my mind and in my heart with what you're going through. I pray for your strength and a felt sense of God's presence.
Holding these prayers with you as you head into the next few weeks and your upcoming surgery.
I am in awe reading this even though I follow you on IG. Then I read that you wrote a prayer for Us, and I began to cry.
You will be on my mind and in my heart on June 4. I am waiting for your precious book.