I've posted before on occasion about the power of music for those battling mental ill-health. Music was a gift to me from very young age - not that I was particularly gifted, but that I was surrounded by people who…
It's been quite the process! One draft was almost complete a year ago, but since then the book has undergone various revisions and tweaks - and then the release was held back until today to coincide with the UK's Mental…
I made the point last month (yikes - I have had a LOT on recently) that we are integrated beings and so inevitably, it is not always possible to draw clear distinctions between physical, sexual and psychological abuses of power.…
To assume that what is going on with Trump, Weinstein, Spacey et al is 'merely' about transgressing sexual boundaries is woefully inadequate and patronising. Is not good enough to head off for some therapy at a health spa either, as…
Sacred Treasure Good stuff: 7 Differences between Judaea and Galilee - Jesus was Jesus of Nazareth... from Dick France. Chris Green offers a rather unexpected but powerful reason to appreciate really soppy Christian songs once in a while. Emma Scrivener is…
I've just seen U2's performance of Bullet the Blue Sky on last night's Fallon. Oh. My. God. That's no expletive. But a prayer. A Prayer of Rage. A prayer I prayed this morning because I was struggling to pray, for whatever…
It’s a much-loved story.
It’s midday, baking hot, and deserted. Nobody in their right mind goes out then. Except a Samaritan woman. And Jesus. It soon becomes obvious why she does: safest time of day. But Jesus…? It’s not at all obvious what he’s up to. (more…)
William Nicholson wrote Shadowlands, the play (which became the film) inspired by C.S.Lewis’s extraordinary testimony A Grief Observed. In it, he gave Lewis this lovely line, one he never actually uttered, but may as well have done.
We read to know we’re not alone
As I wrap this little sequence of ruthless self-exposure up, various omissions and oddities have occurred to me, so the easiest thing is probably to string them together in a miscellany that’s almost Pauline in its randomness (though naturally without his claims to authority). (more…)
I’m glad. In fact, if you didn’t, I’d be quite concerned for you! But be warned. This isn’t for the faint-hearted. It will try your patience and frustrate your sympathies. You’ll definitely have days when you’ve had enough. Perhaps months. So you’ll shrug that you did everything you could but to no avail. [There are only so many hours in a day, and you’ve got your own issues.] So you’ll assume it needs someone else to take up the baton. If that’s the case, then may I make a gentle plea with you? Don’t get involved in the first place… (more…)