I have this water bottle with encouragements at intervals to keep you drinking. The one close to the end is ‘never give up’. Every day I encounter times when I feel close to admitting defeat. As you may feel in different ways, it can be a challenge to keep going. At those points, we desperately…

I was sitting in front of a huge anchor in Dunfanaghy last week, on the look out for an idea for my next post. That sentence in itself shows my poor skills at observance 🙄. It is amazing how life gives us clear messages of hope and we still live in despair!

We need to get that back, don’t we? The last time I remember feeling that togetherness was when I was in the English speaking church in Nice, twenty-five years ago. There was a Dutch- South African,  a Romanian, a man from the Faro islands, an Italian, a man from Singapore, an English woman and me!…

If you look away from that one thing that’s weighing you down and towards what really matters, your life can seem very different.

It never ceases to amaze me how people I had forgotten about somehow appear in my awareness again.

Life is so overwhelmed by silliness and suffering. I lie down at night and so many thoughts, worries and fears rush in. It is hard to stop them, isn’t it? No special teas, no pills, can successfully halt the torrent of anxious thoughts.

To be happy about. If I stop forcing myself to find good in everything, if too much grief and loss have taken over, or if you are just too tired then there is nothing to  work with.

The cherry trees have lost their petals but in between them, another tree with its own blossom has appeared: the hawthorn. As I noticed it I realised that there was something, a certain quality, that we all need. It’s the ability to be positive even when everything around us is failing.

I could make a list of the things that are currently out of my reach, like most of the coffee cups, the shelf with lentils on, even the front and back doors! I could give you a longer one of the things I can no longer do, like walking, jumping, reaching… But I’m done with…

However small they might appear, they might seem big to you.