Two men appeared outside my kitchen window. This is no mean feat, as my flat is three floors up. Below them I could hear noisy clattering and voices shouting instructions. Then braces, brackets, poles and boards appeared. Jack In The Beanstalk style, an ugly metal structure was shooting up, as a long, thin section of … Continue reading Scaffolding
It was either Elsa or Anna (I should know which) who implored us to, ‘Let it go’, as she belted her message out, Disney style. And why not take advice from a cartoon character when the conventional leadership and global governance of the day plays out like a poorly scripted soap opera? We may take … Continue reading The Year Is Going, Let Him Go
Choice: it is, perhaps, the single, most important determinant in how our lives turn out; in how we plough a furrow through this world. Yes, some people, often through fate of birth, are born to a life of enhanced opportunity with an array of choices before them, whilst others are born into a ready-made obstacle … Continue reading I May, I Might, I Must
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
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
‘The old dog for the long road.’ D. taught me that one when I was much younger, when I had more give in my knees. Back then I got the gist of it, though I can't say I fully grasped its depth of meaning. It is one of those sayings to which you nod when … Continue reading Be Still And Wait
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
