This week I deleted my draft Christmas posts, which I promised a week or two ago. I found that I just couldn’t bring myself to add to the plethora of Christmas ideas that are surrounding us at every corner – TV, magazines, online, in the shops… To be honest I find it all rather dizzying….
Category: Reflections
Refreshers
I was reading the book of Philemon in the Bible today. It’s a letter sent by a preacher called Paul to his friends, and the personal first few sentences are brimming with warmth and inspiration. Some of the ways he addresses his friends include: *’dear friend’ *’fellow worker’ *’brother’ *’sister’ *’fellow soldier’ *’partners in the…
Small Things :-)
My ‘Small Things’ posts are about those little things that have brightened my week 🙂 This week, I’ve been: Listening to: Melaena Cadiz, who I heard about through Tomboy Style. Amazing voice! Watching: Monsters University – sooo funny 🙂 Also, a little randomly, I caught a programme on brown bears in Alaska. There was stunning…
Like living in a desert
Did you watch the news today? I caught half of a report on Syria. I saw empty streets, with deserted homes – a ghost town. Almost all the people were gone. A woman stayed because her son had died there. She said ‘I’ll stay here ’till I die, too’. A man said there is ‘no…
Saturday
Saturday was a good day. Walking Jamie and next door dog Nelly under very moody, sun-and-thunder kind of skies, shopping, Pizza Express, a warm fire, a magazine, Castle, and Dr Who. It doesn’t really get much better 🙂 OK, so there was also a fair amount of stressiness (on my part), work (largely racking my…
On Learning to Play the Violin
I am learning to play the violin. When I was younger, I started to learn it at school. The main things I remember about this are: *Being really excited to play ‘Greensleeves’ because I was a geeky little thing and obsessed with the Tudors. *Having to play the song from the Hovis advert with the…
Home
Last month I posted a series of pieces on ‘Home’ by various people around the UK. Everyone had different views but one thing was abundantly clear – it is important to have a place to call home among people you can be at home with. Today, there are thousands of people who have had their…
On my mind this week…
War. And the fact that in our country, it won’t be long before those who can tell us about the World Wars first-hand are gone. Tomorrow I am interviewing someone for a video we are making to use on Sunday, and in our preparation chat today I was so struck by the fact that it…
Flying away
Feeling a bit low is a tricky thing to navigate. It’s easy to feel guilty and to fill your mind with ‘I should’s. I should feel happy. I should appreciate more. I should be thankful. Today, I feel a bit low. I went on wordlive.org to read a bit of the Bible, thinking it would…
Hello, my name is Amy.
Hello, my name is Amy. I am not a Superwoman. My house is a mess most of the time, except for when I have visitors in which case piles are hastily shut in cupboards and plates are shoved in the dishwasher. I am not fat, but I am on the wobblier end of a Size…
Home
For the final post in my series on *home*, I have two pieces that are incredibly similar, from two people who don’t know each other… First, Steve Painting (who happens to be my Dad!) writes on the importance of relationships and faith in a life of fairly temporary physical homes. 12 years ago a friend…
Home
As you’ve probably read, I’ve been collecting views on *home* lately (look out for the final post later this week!) It’s been so thought-provoking hearing what people think. Today, I discovered a beautiful blog called Searching for Tomorrow, and on it, a lovely post about a holiday in France. It caught my attention for obvious…
Life Lived 