Sheila Bridge Blog
Thinking back over the book "Stranger than we can Imagine", would I recommend it? I'm not sure I would - it's a fascinating look back over the 20th century but it doesn't leave you with any sense of hope about the 21st-century. And hope, substantial hope in something solid, is what we all really need... Continue Reading →
This is an amazing read! It leaps from relativity to Cubism to Surrealism, to the optimism in Star Trek and the nihilism in Casablanca. It explains quantum mechanics using a hilarious analogy of Putin punching a kangaroo. From there it goes on to existentialism, individualism and the space race. Higgs has written a factual book... Continue Reading →
This blog is a further reflection on the book Cure: a Journey into the Science of Mind over Body by Jo Marchant. In my previous review, I noted how people who meditate have more highly organised and coordinated brains with higher levels of activity in the prefrontal cortex. When I read this it felt a bit... Continue Reading →
This is an absolutely fascinating read. Written by a scientist, it explores the research into ways our minds influence our physical well-being, our tolerance of pain and our immunity. The first chapter is all about the placebo effect. So far so good, most of us have heard of this and feel slightly self-conscious about the truth... Continue Reading →
I had a most interesting conversation yesterday with a friend around this question: "what is a Christian?" We were discussing the phrase "practising Christian", she accepts that she isn't one of those but she does understand herself to be a Christian. The phrase 'practising Christian' is generally taken to mean "church goer" but being a... Continue Reading →
"Let man's soul be a sphere and then, in this, the intelligence that moves, devotion is" These are lines from a poem by John Donne (1573-1631), hardly contemporary but still wonderfully insightful. We have all sorts of words for worship these days: praise/adoration/contemplation but I think loves this phrase, worship or 'devotion' is 'the intelligence... Continue Reading →
I have learnt a spiritual lesson from growing potatoes. Just when they begin to show little green shoots just above the surface of the soil like this: you are supposed to dump another inch or two of soil on top of them! I was so excited to see these little shoots begin to appear, it... Continue Reading →
Life is not plain sailing and I am not a sailor. But life is like consenting to a journey in a little sailing boat. I am not keen on boats in general, little boats in particular: too vulnerable, too open to the elements. There is only room in this boat (which is my life) for... Continue Reading →
In Luke 7 there are two stories of resurrection. Jesus raises the nearly dead, the centurion's servant, and the very dead, the son of the widow of Nain. Immediately after the young man sits up and starts talking there is a moment of stunned silence. Before the expression of noisy opinions or the blustering of... Continue Reading →
What do you "treasure and ponder"? Most probably it is happy memories, kind things that have been said to you or moments of wonder. It is most unlikely that you "treasure and ponder" the moment a close friend told you that something terrible was going to happen. We might remember such moments, but we are... Continue Reading →
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