More than Writers

    Photo by Nicolas DC on Unsplash There’s a well-known phrase: “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” When it comes to the wasp, I’d rather it be as far away as physically possible—but sadly, no. My cunning enemy found me in an unexpected location: the beautiful country of Slovakia . And at a time I’d least expect—at breakfast. Having breakfast outside, I noticed the wasp buzzing around but didn’t pay much attention. It was quite warm, so I’d taken my shirt off and was sitting there in just my T-shirt. When I went to put my shirt back on, the little blighter had slipped in, stinging me on my upper arm by surprise. Most people would brush it off. A moment of shock, irritation, maybe even anger, but after the pain eases, the moment passes. Not for me. Antihistamines don’t even touch it. The redness slowly crept up my arm which, if not dealt with, would lead to swelling, my arm getting tighter and tighter, causing blisters until… But where’s the bar? Where’s...

Why do we feel compelled to write? To give insights into someone else’s world, e.g. by writing stories set in another culture? To persuade people to change their point of view? To share a vision? Perhaps we are fascinated by human behaviour, or - quite simply - enjoy creating a great story? Whatever writing we do, we will really want to make it convincing, so will need to make the ideas in it joined up, in other words, make good connections between them. I’m spending a lot of time pondering John’s gospel at the moment and constantly marvel at its coherence. He wove the things that Jesus said and did together in to his narrative, carefully making theological connections, so the book he produced ‘feels’ very spiritual. In this blog, I want to share some ideas about spiritual connections in relation to journaling and poetry. Journaling was the way I learnt to process the emotions evoked by what was happening around me, especially in difficult times. Trying my hand at poetry soon fol...

Few pleasures rival a double tick scratched through items on a TTD list; a close competitor, however, is a certain sly look before walking away from the list in an act of supreme defiance. As I write this, to my right is my TTD list – split into two sections, six items on one side and three on the other. On the left includes drafting this month’s MTW blog, and on the right is TJPII, i.e. ‘get back to re-writing the second book in The Bait Digger trilogy’ ; TJP being the initials of the young protagonist, Thomas J. Philpott. Other items include (i) car wash – done, and (ii) Two Moors payment – not done. We’re collectively going nuts, aren’t we, with the sporadic emergence of sunshine, daffodils, birdsong? And maybe knocking encrusted mud from trowels, forks and spades, and finding that a morning’s weeding tests the musculoskeletal system more than it should.  Not quite on a par with the biblical trio of Grace, Mercy, and Peace is found on Mars wrappers: Work, Rest, and Play. But her...

My photo, April 2015 I love early spring, this time in early March when most trees are still leafless but the buds and catkins are starting to appear on the branches and suddenly there’s an explosion of delicate blossom everywhere, lacy clouds of pink and white, blackthorn and prunus. I love the purple and white and gold carpets of crocuses, the golden bells of the daffodils, the first primroses. I love how alive spring makes me feel. This morning I happened to come across this post, ‘Navigating by Aliveness’, on Oliver Burkeman’s blog The Imperfectionist. https://ckarchive.com/b/zlughnhk8772ma7qrr9qehwzgng00f6 In this post, Burkeman is writing about the huge threat of AI to human creativity, and I am struck by how he defines the concept of ‘aliveness’: 'The concept that sits right at the heart of a sane and meaningful life … is something like aliveness. It goes by other names, too, none of which quite nail it – but it’s the one thing that, so long as you navigate by it, y...

                                                                                                                                                                                  Picture Credit: BBC I thought I had more time to write this post. A month with twenty-eight days tricked my brain into thinking the 5 th of March was further away. Now that I think about it, my mind regularly plays that trick on me... there’s plenty o...

  As I start to write my blog, I am amazed that it is March already.    It didn’t seem long ago that I started putting into action my list of ‘New Year’s Resolutions’.    I have totally forgotten what they all were, but I do remember thinking that I needed to make some changes, for the better, and that they only seemed to last for a couple of days, at the beginning of January. Life is so busy for everyone, and I really need to get motivated with my writing. I know what I need to do, but there always seems to be something, everyday, that we have to do and I am not getting enough time to myself. People tell me to put aside specific times, but when I do, something happens which almost always needs my full attention, usually in person. I was recently going through some boxes that I had packed up when I moved house almost two years ago.    Again, something I have been meaning to do, and I came across lots of things from my past; Letters and cards, photograp...