Happy Mid Winter Solstice
The night of the 20th-21st December was the longest night of 2017. In the middle of winter, the solstice was traditionally celebrated as the time of honouring the coming of the sun.
In the depth of the dark, we remember the coming of the light.
This is my magnolia tree.
Most of it’s leaves have … Read more
What is loss?
P asked me what the loss of a parent is like.
It is cutting trees by the river with your mum’s pruning saw and dropping it in the water, shouting ‘No! No! No!’ as you grab for it and can’t reach it and watch it sink into darkness away from you.
It is a sick … Read more
Death at our shoulder
Death seems to be having a feeding frenzy this year. David Bowie, Caroline Aherne, Alan Rickman, Muhammad Ali, Prince, Victoria Lane, Ronnie Corbett, Paul Daniels and Terry Wogan to name some. These are the people and names I grew up with. My mum loved Terry Wogan and he was the breakfast time voice, after Jimmy … Read more
Life Well Lived
What is a life well lived?
I went to a funeral this week.
It was a humanist funeral which celebrated all that Alan had been and all that he had done and all the ways in which he had touched people’s lives. And as I sat there, I reflected on how well he had lived … Read more
Paris
Paris.
I feel so ill qualified to speak.
I’m not there but I know people who are. It could have been our sons, our daughters in that concert, that football stadium, those bars. They were someone’s sons and daughters, someone’s, mums, dads, friends. And so were the killers.
How much hate has there got to … Read more
The Eclipse and Direct Experience
Tomorrow is the eclipse. 931am in our area and we even stand a chance of seeing it according to BBC weather as there should be clear skies for 2 hours.
- Are you going to watch it?
- Where? How?
- Why have you chosen to experience it that way?
It poses a dilemma for me…the kids are … Read more