Stephanie Hammond Author

Stories of heart, hope, and second chances

Welcome!

I write with honesty and a belief in the power of healing threaded throughout my books and the posts in this section.

These posts are snippets of the hard and the beautiful bits of my life. I hope you find something here that speaks to you, lifts your spirit, or simply makes you feel less alone.

I email these snippets out every two weeks. Join the newsletter here to have them delivered straight to your inbox.

  • News, More News Self-Care & Procrastination

    News: Additions to the Family Joyous news! My grandson Isaiah and his beautiful Amber’s daughter, Noa, and my great-grandson Glenn and his beautiful Elizabeth’s son, Octavius, were both born on August 23rd, in Australia. Welcome to our family, you beautiful precious souls.

  • Joy and grief – how do they co-exist?

    Dear Reader Joy and grief – how do they co-exist? In the past few newsletters, I’ve written about my visits to family in Australia. Now I’m writing to share that my darling sister passed away and I flew over again Saturday week ago to be with family and friends and attend her funeral. My little…

  • Living in Hope for Change in Today’s World

    Dear Reader Living in Hope in Today’s World We love where we live and mostly this is because of the people who live and work throughout our neighbourhood: people from the United Kingdom, the Philipines, Malaysia, India, China, the Middle East and Africa, to name a few. Our little street reflects this mix as well.…

  • The Power of Family

    Dear Reader The Power of Family The power of family was brought home to me on Sunday through a documetary we saw at a movie theatre in Hamilton. Tenor – My Name is Pati was recommended to us by several friends so we knew we were in for a treat. It’s the story of Pene…

  • Travelling to see My Sister

    Dear Reader Travelling to see My Sister After three weeks or so since my recent visit, I’m back here in Australia, visiting family again. This time I’m travelling alone. I’m no stranger to solo travelling and I admit I love it. However, this time it felt like I was on an automated conveyor belt, passing…

  • Taking some respite – a visit to family

    Dear Reader Taking some respite Family matters took me to Brisbane for a visit recently. It never ceases to amaze me how we can find joy even when we are feeling overwhelmed. And during the few days I was there, there were many moments of joy. For example: My daughter Amy lives close to a…

  • Have confidence in yourself, my friend.

    Dear Reader Having Confidence in Ourselves One of the women I most admire is Marie Curie. She was born in Poland in 1867. She received two Nobel Prizes for her work: one in chemistry and one in physics – the first woman to receive Nobel Prize in two distinct scientific domains. I honour you, Marie!…

  • Life’s challenges and uncertainties

    Dear Reader First, let me assure you I am doing well and including some new strategies into my day to day life that are already paying dividends. Life is good. The Uncertainty of Life I wanted to share the events of Thursday last week that show the prompt for the theme of this newsletter. My…

  • Living with joy at every stage of life

    Dear Reader Update for New Adventures 🙂 I wrote last time about some of the health trials of 2025. This newsletter continues the theme with some of the ponderings from the last two weeks. I am happy to share that I’ve had x-rays that have revealed I have degenerative arthritis in my lower spine and…

  • New Adventures

    Dear Reader 2026! Time for New Adventures I am happy to say farewell to 2025, with gratitude for learning more about what’s on the horizon and what I need to approach these new challenges with joyful anticipation. One of my darling daughters gave us a New Year challenge recently: Every year we choose a power…