Happy Sunday, happy December, and happy one-year not-posting-on-social-media anniversary to me. That’s right, I realised a few days ago that the last time I shared a post on social media was December 1st 2023. Looking back, I don’t remember deciding on a specific date to cease posting on social media. Rather, it was more of a gradual decline in my desire to engage with social media. I’ve previously shared how my use of social media…
Happy Sunday. This week I thought I’d do a song spotlight as I haven’t done one in a while. The song I’d like to share is one I wrote a few years ago as an ode to the innocence of childhood. It’s called Take Me Back, and as the name suggests it’s about reminiscing and longing for the past. That said, contrary to the title, it isn’t necessarily about wanting to go back, but rather…
Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m no stranger to the benefits of quiet time – I’ve previously written about the need for boredom, solitude and guarding our attention. However, this is something I keep coming back to every couple of days, and I find myself regularly reminded of it in one form or another. The latest reminder came in the form of Jason Chatfield’s article, Creativity Requires Quiet, which I stumbled on…
Back in the summer (it feels like a long time ago) I shared a short story I wrote on this blog, and inadvertently started a new series where, once every few weeks I share a short story I’ve been working on. The last one of these I shared was I Was There. This week I’m back with another one of those, called The Traveller. I’d love to hear what you think of it. Let me…
How’s your week been? Busy? Restful? A healthy mix of both? Without knowing who you are and when you’re reading this I’d hazard a guess that your response is more likely to be busy than restful. I say this because as a society, we are increasingly donning busyness as a badge of honour. To be clear, I have no doubt that most of us lead busy lives thanks to our contractual, financial and familial obligations.…
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’d know there’s been so much horror and tragedy in the news lately. It seems every day there’s a new story about hundreds or thousands of people dying in some faraway land. Maybe it’s a drone strike in Gaza that’s levelled an entire neighbourhood, a bombing in Lebanon that’s killed and injured hundreds, or the war which rages on in Ukraine, with casualties rising quicker than we can…
A few weeks ago I shared a short story I wrote on a train on this blog, and inadvertently started a new series where, once every few weeks I’d share a new short story I’ve been working on. I’m back this week with another one of those, called I was there. I’d love to hear what you think of it. Let me know if you’d like more of these in the future. — I Was…
Last week I wrote about adopting seasonal metaphors for thinking about life as a whole, and how a late summer inspired me to write a song – a note to self really – that some things are out of our control. Naturally, this week I’ve decided to follow up with a post sharing the song lyrics, as I tend to do from time to time. I’ll be back next week with with a short story…
Today is October 6th (where has the year gone?) which means we’re firmly in the northern hemisphere’s autumn season. All you need to do is look around for the telltale signs that summer’s done and autumn’s here; that is if you happen to reside sufficiently north of the equator to experience four distinct seasons, with the weather getting colder and the days getting shorter as the year comes to an end. The signs are everywhere.…
Last night, I attended an event organised by an actor training company called Both Feet, which specialises in training actors for careers in theatre and film. The event enabled me (and others in the audience) to gain insights into the sorts of activities and exercises that these actors undertake, a lot of which are geared towards understanding our humanity and embracing the human condition. At the start of the event, the host, Stephanie Morgan talked…