There’s been a falling out – but I never was good at keeping friends. The visitor is outstaying their welcome. Not that they were welcome in the first place, but you know what I mean (if you don’t, you may like to read the previous post). The situation isn’t any Read more…
A friend has come to stay. We first met in 1988 when they wrecked my life. Since then, we’ve met just once, a few years ago. So it was a surprise to meet them again, if I’m honest. But there again, given what happened, perhaps it wasn’t. The very first Read more…
‘We’re in the funeral generation now,’ I said as we walked away from having said goodbye to Elizabeth. A kinder person you couldn’t have wished to have known. Jane and I have been to more funerals in the last three months than in the past three years (and that’s without Read more…
Malvern. Nestling in the foot of the hills that bear its name, the town has been a place of holiday and sanctuary on many occasions. And this time was no different. As we drove up the M5, the Malvern Hills waved at us from between the passing trees, giving greetings Read more…
One of the benefits of being asked to write book reviews (aside from getting a free copy, of course) is that I get to read ones I wouldn’t naturally pick up off the shelf – or, given the demise of so many Christian bookshops in recent years, off Amazon, Eden Read more…
Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. It seems somewhat foolish to being calling it ‘Freedom Day’. With a third Covid wave charging onward, Tennyson’s famous lines have for me found a very uncomfortable echo in the lifting of restrictions in England on 19 July. Not though Read more…
‘Sometimes I sit and think, sometimes I just sit.’ The last twenty years has seen an increase in awareness of mental health issues. The last twenty years has also seen a resurgence in the use of mindfulness. The two are not unrelated. Adopting the philosophy of Winnie-the-Pooh (not forgetting his erstwhile companion, AA Milne), Read more…
‘Hello. We are expecting you.’ The words on arriving for a long overdue retreat were both welcome and unexpected. For me, retreats are often for taking a break. To get away from it all – whatever ‘it all’ means. The pandemic had already put paid to three and the last Read more…
It’s the same every morning. The dog barks. I sit on the edge of my bed for a moment. Go downstairs and give Daisy her Bonio. Put the kettle on. Let her out. Make a large mug of tea. Let her in. Excited at the new day, Daisy does her Read more…
The retreat was long overdue. The pandemic had put paid not once but twice to Alton Abbey, my spiritual home, and Boris had wrecked two weeks’ annual leave in June. The best part of a year had passed since I last had ‘a period of solitary refinement’ as someone once Read more…