and mean what you say.  I’ve no idea who first coined that phrase but it is one that rings around my mind a lot. Not that I do it, as my bad haircut will testify.  I’ve spent the last two weeks trying to convince myself that I meant it when I said the words I…

I discovered, not for the first time, that listening to somebody can benefit you as much as them (depending on what they’re talking about of course) .  Yesterday I was teetering on the edge of tears, and I had the sense to ask the person next to me how things were with them.  All of…

is still too much for most of us as we face an Everest of tasks – whether it’s simply a full washing machine, a counter filled with groceries needing put away, a house crying out to be hoovered, or, as for many, an overflowing in-box, an ever-growing list of tasks handed to us by the…

but I haven’t laughed as much in a long time.  It was my dad’s 80th, and we’d all gone to a four star hotel to celebrate for a night.  Mum treated all the girls to an afternoon at the spa, which was lovely.  But sadly being paired with my big sister was a recipe for…

I think it my nine year old son saying that his life was stressful that did it.  Or maybe some time before.  But here is the horrible, tragic thing that I’m bothered by: our children are losing the capacity to imagine or to wonder.  To be a child. These times with all their high-tech gadgets…

I came across a very relevant article today which perfectly articulated my feelings at the moment, http://careynieuwhof.com/meets-my-needs/.  Since moving twenty minutes drive away from our current church, I have spent the last year in a tug-of-war debate as to whether my family and I should leave, and move to a church closer to our new…

I read that description of the crowds following Jesus in the gospel of Matthew last night and realised that it was also an apt observation of the people milling around the edges of my observation too. Last week was a killer blow in the States, with the bad-haired, orange faced, misogynist, racist, egotist Trump pushing…

Gloomily reflecting on my narrow existence last night (blame the pressure of a new year), I realised something.  When physically you are limited, when that monster fatigue is always the one making all the decisions, when you feel you have lost most of yourself, it’s time to choose how you will carry on.  Look at…

Every Christmas, bar possibly one, my father-in-law brings home a terrible tree.  Either it’s too tall, too skinny, too crooked, or, like this time, too wrong in every way.  He bought (no idea why they charged him for it) his tree this year, and decided to split it with a friend.  The outcome is a…

I have had a headache for days now, and I seem to have developed this terrible habit of waking at least an hour before the alarm goes.  My stress levels are through the roof.  Why?  It’s only a month til Christmas.  Apparently the most wonderful time of the year.  Is it really? With every year…