I'm just posting here a link to a talk I did back in March at the Activate Conference. If you want to listen to the talk you follow the link and it's on itunes but it's free. I was blown away by the generous response to this talk when I gave but maybe you had... Continue Reading →
‘The Gifts of Imperfection’ and other books by Brené Brown
This isn't so much a book review as a library review - this woman has written alot and it's all very good. Where do I start? 'The Gifts of Imperfection' is annoyingly brilliant. why annoyingly? Because she kind of says the exact same thing that I wrote TWENTY-THREE years ago! Only she says it alot... Continue Reading →
‘It is what it is’
This is a phrase that has got me through some difficult experiences and some low moments. I've found myself saying it again to a couple of people lately. It may sound like resignation but there is a world of difference between resignation and acceptance (see image). So when I say this phrase I mean acceptance.... Continue Reading →
Happy New Year? Two poems to get you through 2018
The turning of the calendar from one year to the next always seems to me to be the most slender of reasons for celebration. Surely it is no more hopeful than the beginning of every new day? Why in the world would the changing of a single digit in a date inspire hope for tired... Continue Reading →
Why the one truth most people live by will not help you
"Peace on earth"? How, in God's name (quite literally) did the concept of 'peace' come to be associated with the birth of child? Anyone who's ever had a child will tell you that the quality of peace is not something you associate with the arrival of children! In fact the very opposite: not only are... Continue Reading →
Rekindling
Written in Lent 2017 See Helen's Poetry Page
Living Advent Calendar
We've had a fabulous local initiative started up in three streets near us: a living Advent Calendar. The idea is that every night from Dec 1st to 24th - a different house in these three adjoining streets reveals a window display around 6pm and invites their neighbours out on to their driveway to share in... Continue Reading →
Alone in Berlin – Film Review – a story of huge courage with contemporary implications.
Based on a true story, this film shows how ordinary people can show extraordinary courage in the face of oppression. Otto and Elise Hampel lived in Berlin during the second World War, after suffering a devastating loss, they began a simple but terrifying campaign of resistance. Acting entirely alone, they began to write propaganda postcards... Continue Reading →
Why doing things badly might be a good idea
I'm doing two things badly at the moment: dieting and exercise. For the last three weeks, I have committed myself again to that most miserable of disciplines: dieting which for the sake of my health, simply has to be done. I never used to find exercising tedious but now that my various aches and pains... Continue Reading →
Mindfulness: end of course conclusions
I’ve been leading a mindfulness group for the last 9 weeks. “Leading” is actually a slightly misleading word. All I did was invite 10 to 12 friends to purchase the same book that I myself had decided to read and then I set up a closed group on Facebook with the idea that we could... Continue Reading →