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
Category Archives: Uncategorized
TIPS FOR FIRST-TIME TRAVELLERS TO JAPAN, or how to have a great time without pissing off the Japanese
Japan is an amazing, achingly beautiful country that deserves to be on everyone’s must-visit destination list. It is full of fascinating ancient and modern historical sites with a unique cultural and spiritual appeal, set in stunning scenery and abounding with a glorious natural beauty that remains undiminished and (mostly) untarnished by time and modernity. ItContinue reading “TIPS FOR FIRST-TIME TRAVELLERS TO JAPAN, or how to have a great time without pissing off the Japanese”
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.
Happy Twixmas! – or ‘Twelfth Night, Or What You Will’
The word ’hovering’ describes exactly what we are doing in this in-between, Twixmas period: waiting for new life to emerge. It offers a valuable time to embrace the silence before words; the darkness before light; the formlessness before shape.
America is a Gun: What IS wrong with America?
America is a Gun England is a cup of tea.France, a wheel of ripened brie.Greece, a short, squat olive tree.America is a gun. Brazil is football on the sand.Argentina, Maradona’s hand.Germany, an oompah band.America is a gun. Holland is a wooden shoe.Hungary, a goulash stew.Australia, a kangaroo.America is a gun. Japan is a thermal spring.ScotlandContinue reading “America is a Gun: What IS wrong with America?”
2. Mental Health and Work
When you are used to waking up every morning and having a job to go to for at least a full eight hours where you are totally focused on doing work you will get some recognition and sense of self-worth / value and /or identity from, suddenly not having this can be very depressing indeed.
1. What is mental health?
“Currently, mental health is often viewed only as mental health issues, and is seen as a sign that we’re ‘broken’ and need ‘fixing’. It shouldn’t be this way. Mental health issues are an incredibly important part of the mental health conversation, but they aren’t the whole conversation.” – James Routledge
Mental health: A personal journey
Recently I attended a London Writers Salon-hosted online interview with entrepreneur and author James Routledge, founder of Sanctus – a start-up he set up due to the mental health issues he struggled with as a result of his first failed start-up, having found there was nothing in place to offer the help he needed. IContinue reading “Mental health: A personal journey“
Write-up on me as a featured writer with the London Writers Salon by Lauren McMenemy
Amid the wealth of historical detail, I aim to keep the pace exciting and filled with lively characters, drama and action-packed sequences. At its heart, it is a culture-clash love story, an exploration of the first seeds of the multiculturalism we know today and how these very disparate cultures and peoples inspired each other, creating a rich fusion of artistic traditions.
Small Writer at Large 