Footnotes on Life

The tag on the shower puff read 'This product is made from natural materials, imperfections may show with use'. Well indeed. Exactly that. From time to time we could all do with that label on. Reminding others, reminding ourselves. Remembering this is true for those...

'Ruins are not empty. They are sacred places full of presence'(John O'Donahue: Anam Cara). If we look we can see ruins everywhere. We see what is being brought to ruin right now. Impending ruin collects again. Adding to the ruins of our past. Rubble piling up in the...

the year we wished we could pack up banish into the loft or post off and discard to a distant land how to make sense of a time where the only gift was darkness the forest whispers 'do nothing' the next year will come will always, steadily, reliably wrap around this...

We got matching yellow hats that day. From Wilko’s I think, plus a hand towel each. Oh, and we dropped by a charity shop, rummaged hastily... ‘There must be a couple here somewhere?’ - emerging exuberant with our finds! One over-sized, simply enormous, fluffy jumper...

The cavalry is not coming. I remember telling myself this. Distress can do that to you. Give you falsehoods. Make you forget. In the end though, I found a way to ‘find my own grit, in my own time’ (a beautiful phrase in Katherine May’s book ‘Wintering’)....

There came a day when I was driving and for no known reason, and rather embarrassingly, I thought of the 00’s song ‘Hero’ by Enrique Inglesias. (https://open.spotify.com/track/24Gxm7Eh7tO83E26LG0CsY ) Or at least a few lines from it. Almost against my better reasoning...

What takes up space in our homes? In our lives? In our time? How do we know when we have run out of space? Or when a little space makes itself known? From time to time I run out of space and I only realise when a little has been clawed back, when I catch myself...

The view from two inches off the earths’ surface Eye level now with the determined grass It’s sweet smell like life eternal I lay face down Even as the dusk comes And the earth grows damp I let it soak in The ground is softer than I remember The blades more gentle As...

If I were to map my footprints they would be in lines drawn thick with repetition my commute to and fro the direction of travel always up down left right straight along back again Daily paths predictable rigid angular I see kids and how they map their day how they...

It is a wonderful thing, to know your place in the world and to fully inhabit it. Very good things stem from taking up your space. I've put together some of the people and places who do this so well on my 'inspired by' page. To this I must add, Olympians... In the...

I could do with some help. I am not good at making things. But I need to make a kite. You see some time ago now words were written and things said that caused me great pain. And I have not known what to do with them and so they sit in a box in the loft. I even...

Resolution, reconciliation and redemption. No matter what I know about these 3 R's on this day, there will be more to say about them tomorrow. As with most matters, this can only be all I know so far, such is the beauty of time and life - that we may change our minds....