Self Acceptance

My son had his last day at school this week and, as if rewound back through the years at pace, I was transported to his first. Nervous at being left, often tearful, and unwilling to grasp the concept of this brutal wrenching away from his mother being a thing of permanency for the next fourteen … [Read more...] about How To Be Grown Up

There’s a couple who live a few doors down with their young son.  On Monday he was off out with his mother and, as she strode purposefully to the car, he was haring up and down the road, skipping and jumping without a care in the world. “Come on, you’re wasting time” she called without looking back. … [Read more...] about Why You Shouldn’t Listen To Your Parents

This week I have been listening to the wonderful podcast “S-Town”. Pulled into a world I hadn’t experienced inhabited by people I didn’t know, all drawn in vivid colour by the excellent narration and their own seeming ordinariness underpinned with fascinating complexity, there was something else … [Read more...] about How To Be Lonely

I’m in Italy. My grandfather was born here just a few miles away yet I, in all my pale English pomp, am effectively an alien cast in amongst foreign people in a foreign land. However much at home I might feel is this my home? However beautiful the beauty is, in a sense, borrowed and soon I will need … [Read more...] about How To Be An Alien

The man who lives across the road is angry with me. He hasn’t said so but his actions speak louder than the absence of his words. Some people seem to be precious about being able to park their cars on the road outside their own houses and will go to great lengths to ensure that they can. I am often … [Read more...] about Why Denying Your Emotion Is Pointless