His voice is the first thing I hear when I walk into the shop. “Mina.” He is calling to her down a book-lined corridor to the back room where volunteers are sorting through bags of donations. “Those shoes I bought here before Christmas – remember? The size thirteens? I nearly didn't take them. Haven’t they’ve turned out … Continue reading Glass Half Full
“Could you send me the name of the wine you brought when you came for dinner the other night?” Ping. Back came an immediate response: “Canny Mind.” Gone are the days of wines being named after the vineyard, the land where the grapes are grown or the winemaker himself. Château Des Maures, Cloudy Bay and … Continue reading Canny Mind
A.’s car wouldn’t start this morning. It might have been the cold. When we were small, five Hail Marys got our car going when the temperature dropped and the engine hacked like a 30-a-day smoker and refused to budge – it worked every time. Its clogged up mechanical throat cleared and it spluttered to life … Continue reading Prayer Push
It’s oft quoted, and it sounds like it might be from the Bible, or from Shakespeare, but the attribution for recording to print that 'the darkest hour is just before the dawn' falls to the English theologian and historian, Thomas Fuller. He wrote it in 1650, in language that is somewhat more archaic than what … Continue reading The Darkest Hour
I’m finding it hard to let go of the weekend. It was such a lovely one, pink whipped morning skies and trails of orange cloud by evening; the evening (when measured by the availability of light) being 3.30pm. Neither my mind nor body have quite made it to Monday and I’m hankering to be back … Continue reading Pigs Might Fly
Resilience: it has come to be one of those buzz words, a quality we seek to embody for ourselves, our children, our towns, our communities. It is that ability to withstand life’s scouring pad and boiling water, to emerge shiny, free from scrape or scald. Possessing the means to bounce back when the bowling ball … Continue reading Resilience
“When we lose that sense of the possible, we lose it fast.” Joan Didion, Blue Nights. I understand what she’s saying. For me it’s like the tide coming in on a sandcastle: one minute it is standing firm and the next its foundations have been eaten away and down it goes in one a lurching collapse. … Continue reading Possibility
“The world needs a wash and a week’s rest.” I love that line. It’s W.H. Auden, from one of his longer poems, Age of Anxiety. Don't you know just what he means? We all need time off work, time off being responsible, or productive. We need time off the exhaustion of maintaining a positive outlook, … Continue reading Age Of Anxiety
About ten years ago, on a camping trip, I caught the little toe of my left foot on a rock when I was messing about in a river. Nature had provided a slide in the form of a long rock rendered smooth from thousands of years of water running over it. Taking turns, we would … Continue reading Wounds
How I love, and hate, that double-edged sword that is the certitude of change. When life is all swamp and drudgery there is comfort and more than a dash of sustenance to be found in the truthful wisdom that, ‘this too will pass’. But when the sun is high in the sky and you’re basking … Continue reading This Too Will Pass
