I’ve never much bothered about Lent and the practise of giving something up hoping that somehow this small sacrifice will bring me closer to God. With the whole world caught up in so much darkness and despair right now, perhaps I need to rethink my whole approach to these 40 days. After Jesus was baptised... Continue Reading →
Listening to My Life
The most enjoyable things about preparing these blogs is to find an appropriate photo and a relevant prayer. A recent blog was accompanied by a donkey and an old rhinocerous, with the question, which one was I? Once upon a time, in a former I was very definitely a rhino, a charging rhino. I'd been... Continue Reading →
Go Well Into a New Year
I had to make an early (for me) start today to get to a hospital in Portsmouth. People anxious about me having rather too much iron in my blood; me worrying that I was slowly turning into a giant magnet. Never having been there before I allowed an hour for the trip. Coat on, ready... Continue Reading →
Who Pays for Dinner?
Last week, right out of the blue, someone told me I was a cheapskate, with a ‘very different set of values to theirs’. Cheapskate: a miserly or stingy person, especially one who tries to avoid paying a fair share of costs or expenses. Etymology: skate - an old horse not worth much, (at least one up... Continue Reading →
Donkey (or Old Battered Rhino) For Hire
I’ve finally come to an end of a challenging assignment. My toughest so far by a long long way. I mentioned in my last blog that I'd been invited to join the board of a local food bank, saying 'this would be like a walk in the park'. ‘You wish’, responded the CEO. I hope... Continue Reading →
When Will I Ever Learn?
“As we journey through life, discarding baggage along the way, we should keep an iron grip, to the very end, on the capacity for silliness. It preserves the soul from desiccation.” (Humphrey Littleton, quoted in The Times.) Right now we’re all trying hard to make sense of things. Danger threatens from different directions; serious hardship or... Continue Reading →
Let’s Welcome the Stranger
Getting home late from a week away, and needing bread and milk, Anita sent me off to Tesco while she unpacked. There’s a Polish supermarket 3 minutes walk away; one of half a dozen or more in the town, and I thought let’s give it a try. It was a novel experience. I was completely... Continue Reading →
Thoughts from sunny but windy Cornwall
We’ve been resting up in a lodge in deepest Cornwall this last week. Visited the seals at Godrevy Point, immersing ourselves into the sights and sounds of a part of the country we all love. Today sadly was marred by a most unfortunate incident. Millie does not like wind or rain. It’s been windy for... Continue Reading →
Authority and Power (2)
My last blog on Authority and Power hit the spot with a number of readers. 'This almost exactly mirrors the situation I'm in'. 'You must have written this just for me', to mention a couple of comments. And I've been told some harrowing tales of charities where there's been a disharmony between authority and power.... Continue Reading →
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