So often, I find myself asking why. Why is this all so hard? Why can’t it just be easy? Why won’t the stress stop? Why does he get to have that? Why don’t I? We can all become inclined to think that life is meant to be easy, that the most beautiful lives are those of the…
Category: Reflections
Small Things/ My week so far…
My week started badly. I was in the wrong frame of mind on Monday morning, so negativity swept across my day like a hurricane. It’s destructive, letting yourself travel down the road of despondency. My New Year’s Resolutions – things like ‘see God’s goodness’, ‘keep hopeful’, ‘be thankful’ – seemed to be slipping away as I…
New Year’s Resolutions when you really don’t know what the year will hold
My sister and I love the ‘what’re your New Year’s Resolutions?’ discussions on New Year’s Eve, and as I wrote here, I’ve tended to be a big fan of looking ahead and giving ourselves goals and hopes. I really buy into it. This year, though, I have found it hard to come up with anything…
2014
How would you describe 2014? For me, it was a year of two halves, one of change and growth. During the first 6 months, I finished my job in Buckinghamshire without really reducing the pace of life and work at all, had a lot of fun with friends and family with dog walks and trips to London and meals…
Small Things
The last couple of weeks for me have held a few ups and downs. When people use that phrase they are usually thinking more of the ‘downs’ than the ‘ups’, and that is the case for me: self pity often seems to be nipping at my heels lately. It is in this frame of mind…
Finding Faith in Christmas 2
Recently I posted about the goodness of God – how knowing He is good can help us to rediscover the true joy of Christmas. But it can be hard to find faith in this: when we see those around us suffer, when we feel our prayers have not been answered, when we feel forgotten as we…
Finding Faith in Christmas 1
I love this quote from Ann Voskamp (image downloadable from her website): It’s what I’m thinking about as December drifts in. Everyone’s getting ready now for the big day, aren’t they? Presents and food and outfits and parties… Amid the excitement, I’m feeling a little subdued if I’m honest. It’s not that I don’t enjoy…
An Uncomfortable Read
I have just finished a novel – a good book with a great story to tell, but one which I found a little uncomfortable to read. You see, there was so much in it that I identified with, so much that felt painfully close to my own heart. Perhaps that is what made it a…
Life Lately
This Friday was the loveliest of Fridays. I have Friday afternoons off, and this week Jamie and I had an unspoken agreement that the rainy weather obliged us to spend it in the kitchen where the Rayburn would keep us warm and we could generally do very little. Jamie duly snoozed for hours and I was the…
What they don’t teach you in school about family planning
I don’t know about anyone else, but the message I got from my rather limited school sex education classes was pretty much like this… You can get pregnant quicker than you can say ‘contraception’ so make sure you practise ‘safe sex’ at all costs. No one wants to get pregnant these days before they get…
Spiritual Whitespace
Since reading Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Where you Are, I have discovered a whole range of American writers who are exploring different ways of thinking, living and believing. All have come to points in their lives where they realised they were desperate for change. They wanted to break away…
Bitter Sweet
Later this week, I’ll be posting a few reflections on a great book I just finished, Finding Spiritual Whitespace: Awakening your Soul to Rest, by Bonnie Gray. I enjoyed Bonnie’s book so much that I looked up her blog, Faith Barista, and found it a beautiful way to slow down for a moment with a coffee…
Life Lived 