A response to loneliness
It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me Taylor Swift, 'Anti-Hero' And when it comes to loneliness, Taylor Swift couldn’t be more true. An epidemic People are talking about the loneliness epidemic. It’s been in the air since 2020 when the pandemic forced us all inside....
Putting Hutchmoot 2023 into action
It takes a village to be an adult It’s a thought I’ve been working on for a few years now. I workshopped it with Becky as we drove up to Derbyshire. It is the inspiration behind my Pass the Piece contribution to Bethany. It was the driving motivation behind going to...
Telling the stories that need remembering
Saturday 3 December 2022. It was going to be a good day. A special day. It was a West End musical day! My sister and I have a tradition that we refer to as “sister dates”. As a general rule, they consist of a meal together (Wagamama or Chinese takeaway typically) and...
New Year, Intentions, Goals, and Think Days
I started writing this in the second half of January 2023. Really it should have been ready to post on 31 December. But I guess that is why one of my goals for this year is to begin writing more regularly again. Which was also a goal for 2022… and 2021… and 2020…...
Word of the Year 2022 vs 2023: From Tree to Balance
Well, having found my word, maybe I do know what I want - rootedness and stability while reaching up and out. Me at the start of 2022 It’s that time of year again when we all start to look back at the last year and ask the terrifying questions: How did I grow? Am I a...
Queen Elizabeth II and a Legacy of Tension
Since Thursday 8 September, according to the news, the world has been turned upside down. The death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has caused untold levels of sadness, grief and mourning across the country, and even the world. Or at least that is what the news...
Pass the Piece 2021 – found poetry, glass art and going home
I attended Hutchmoot Homebound again this year. Though I didn't focus on it as much as I did last year (whole other story but life is crazy!), I did make the wonderful decision to take part in Pass the Piece again. It is a collaborative project, where each participant...
Being socially anxious and overcoming it
This is an old post... as in from my last blog, which I closed down at the end of 2017 in order to launch Finding Chaya. So why revisit it now? Because once again I am finding myself moving to a city to be part of a large church where one service is double the size of...
For the love of…
How would you finish a sentence that began "For the love of..."? Automatically, I want to finish it with "all that is holy" even though I know how blasphemous it sounds. You probably chose a similar ending - something that conveys shock, surprise, or maybe...
Loving at Walking Speed
Love moves at 3mph, the speed of walking.
I liked this idea. God moved slowly because he wanted to take the time to talk with and get to know those He “walked with”. But as with so many metaphors used to explain theological concepts, it didn’t really sink in. We talk about walking with God so much that it has almost lost meaning. We infer that Adam and Eve walked in the Garden of Eden with God and know that Jesus walked with His disciples – relationships that were built at walking pace.
Yet this all happened in the Bible. In 2019, we lived in a world where walking had become an anomaly. Pre-Covid, life was lived at such a pace that the only socially acceptable options seemed to be driving everywhere, even places that were less than half an hour away by foot. The only places I know this not to be the case are cities where traffic is so bad and the geography so flat that cycling is quicker. As someone who chose to walk everywhere within a 30-minute radius, and was often questioned for that choice, I can say that at least British society does not think walking is a logical or sane option.