Category: Thoughts

  • Angels with boots on.

    Even if you don’t believe in the supernatural, the human sort of angel is pretty common.

  • Complicating kindness

    I’ve had this knot in my chest since Saturday. Why? I read a tweet by someone who, rightfully or not, was destroying the act of clapping for the NHS every Thursday night. Admittedly, she did work for the NHS and had a very valid argument for her objection, mainly to do with the Conservative party.…

  • My candle

    It started one day when I heard that someone had asked for people to light their candles to show solidarity with their self-isolating neighbours.

  • Spring in your step.

    It’s been a long time since I walked with light footsteps. I haven’t been able to skip, dance, jog or jump for years.

  • Making do.

    During these sparse, empty cupboard times the phrase ‘making do’ keeps coming to mind. I’ve discovered that I am not gifted at this. Other people can make gourmet meals out of scraps, high fashion from rags and shop-worthy cards from things that were just ‘lying around’.

  • I see you

    At the beginning of lock-down I persuaded my parents to have a Duo call with me. My mum said “peepo!” when she saw me. Last week we had a zoom church service. The first five minutes were filled with people seeing their friends and saying hi. Over and over. It was funny but also the…

  • #stockholding memories

    I have a confession to make: I hate the whole #makingmemories thing. My reason? My bad health meant that I was rarely able to create or involve myself in outings like that. What usually happened was that I would wait at home for my family to do something and then show me the photos, or…

  • The blackbird’s song

    I couldn’t write my usual blog last week because I saw so many people telling us how to think, feel and behave and I felt yet another one of the same would be too much. I’m returning to my usual today because I miss the discipline of positive thinking I practise every Monday. I’ve partially…

  • Eggs

    He rummaged through the broken pencils, bits of chalk, rubber bands and old receipts to find a thin ring-bound notepad. He took it and the only working pen to the table. He looked out beyond the dripping tap, the empty counter and checked the sky. Grey but not black. He’d be dry at least. The…

  • A pocket full of posies

    That nursery rhyme has been stuck on repeat in my head for at least a week now. Did you know that it was only in the mid 20th century that people associated it with the Plague and Black Death? When it was originally sung or chanted in the 17th century, there was no such dark…