Category Archives: Faith

2024: A Year of Trials and Miracles

Looking back over the year, I see many underlying themes of grace and comfort — not to mention several timely bona-fide miracles — amid what was undoubtedly the hardest year of my life. Even if my only achievement of 2024 has been surviving it despite everything, I have not lost my faith, my joy, my hope nor my desire to carry on

Life after loss: Moving on, looking up

Answering the question ‘what happens after you lose someone/suffer a major loss?’ is one of those how-long-is-a-piece-of-string-type questions, in that a. each person handles and processes grief differently; and b. the truth is that you never really stop grieving. Even when you move on, there is always that big black hole of sorrow inside thatContinue reading “Life after loss: Moving on, looking up”

‘IT STARTS LIKE THIS’: An Unexpected Journey

What do you think of when you hear the quote, ‘Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans’*? Does one of those delightful ‘God incidences’ spring to mind? Or perhaps you were just out on your normal coffee break when you lock eyes with the person you instantly know is the love ofContinue reading “‘IT STARTS LIKE THIS’: An Unexpected Journey”

Samurai, Sakura and Onsen Satori: 18 Days in Japan

Japan is a fascinating country; even when you get lost and end up wandering through some residential district as I often did, noticing little details outside people’s houses or seeing one of its many species of swallowtail butterflies or huge ‘bear bees’ grants moments of pure rapture.

THE GIFT OF REST

Just as the Earth needs a period of dormancy before she can resume her profligate exuberance, so we as her creatures also need to receive the gift of rest so we will be revived for the next season of growth, life and development.

Questions for my readers: I need your help!

As this post-new year time of coming out of winter and heading into spring is usually a process of reflection and refining, I’d love some feedback from you on which topic(s) interest you most.

‘Blessed are they that mourn’: A very real calling in a time of climate crisis

Surely, at this time of climate and ecological emergency, the first place we as Christians should be is on our knees.

Un-Earthing meaning: Colin Caffell’s ‘Reflections on the Feminine – a visual essay’ at Penwith Gallery, Cornwall

It seems strangely fitting that artist Colin Caffell, who typically works with earthy materials (clay, bronze, wax, resin, wood) as a potter and sculptor (see his beautifully multi-hued seascape-theme ceramics below), should have chosen to highlight the very fragility of Mother Earth in his solo exhibition, ‘Reflections on the Feminine – a visual essay’ atContinue reading “Un-Earthing meaning: Colin Caffell’s ‘Reflections on the Feminine – a visual essay’ at Penwith Gallery, Cornwall”