Many years ago, I was part of a church leadership team in Essex. In the office, we had a young lady who worked hard and took care of much of the admin. What I never forgot was her tactic of how she would deal with any request from one of […]

In my early years working in an office I had the misfortune to work for a manager who was everything you didn’t want him to be. He was dull, petty, spiteful; if he picked you up on a mistake, and in my case, that was all too often, he’d lecture […]

Now we’re allowed out to play we’ve been spending time catching up with offspring and their offspring in various parts of the country. Recently up in Essex with family we were introduced to a young lady, the girlfriend of one of our grandchildren. She wore shorts over fishnet tights and […]

“To love someone long-term is to attend a thousand funerals of the people they used to be. The people they’re too exhausted to be any longer. The people they don’t recognize inside themselves anymore. The people they grew out of, the people they never ended up growing into. We so […]

In my efforts to simplify my life I’m getting rid of some hundreds of books. I can only do this reasonably successfully when Anita works alongside me, for reasons you can probably imagine. We’d filled a Gousto box, (long story for another day), and I was about to start filling […]

“Poor naked wretches, whereso’er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, Your looped and windowed raggedness, defend you From seasons such as these? ” (King Lear Act 3 Scene 4.) When these words were first spoken, The nation was being rocked by bubonic plague […]

Still on the theme of pressing the pause button as we come out of lockdown. (My life is generally in transition right now and it may be a lot easier for me to pause than for many readers.) How has pausing impacted me? Today we paused to chat with our […]

My last blog gently encouraged us to press the pause button as we come out of lockdown. I meant every word at the time and still do, but I probably need to revert to my usual grumpy self or my friends might start to worry about me. So this time […]

The thought of pressing pause came to me following a discussion last week with someone we were working with. Some glitches had arisen; we wanted to find a way through; it was decided to pause, take stock and re-group.. The verb to pause is lovely, full of meaning and gentleness. […]

Here at the centre everything is still Before the stir and movement of our grief Which bears its pain with rhythm, ritual, Beautiful useless gestures of relief. So they anoint the skin that cannot feel Soothing his ruined flesh with tender care, Kissing the wounds they know they cannot heal, […]