”and you too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine." - Mary Oliver As you place one foot, and then the other, onto the ground of this new year, you may want to think about what you want to leave behind in 2024, and not...

This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one: being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. ~George...

” Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. “ We tend not to like endings. Beginnings are so much more attractive, yet, whenever we begin something new something in our lives is also ending. William Bridges, expert on change and transition, expresses...

I think we have all known what it is to feel lost; to come to a place where there are no roads. As disorienting as that can be, the potential for growth is enormous. We can no longer find old solutions to familiar problems or bask in the status quo. Something needs to...

Sometime we choose change: graduate from university; gap year in Europe; marriage; accept a new job with a better salary package; change careers; choose to take a retirement package ….. Sometimes, change is thrust upon us:  a partner leaves; a mysterious illness...

Sometimes we want something to change, but we keep stalling, finding excuses, thinking that if we just plug on in the way we have been doing, eventually some breakthrough will come –  in our career; our relationships; our health; our business; our dreams … Cara Leyba,...

Late one Saturday evening  a young man, recently paralysed and rendered mute in an accident, is at the wedding reception  of a relative. A young woman, name and details unknown to him, is sitting on his lap. She’s stroking his face; kissing; crying; saying things to...

Are you a leader wondering if the vision you have for your life, your organization, and the larger purpose you want to serve, is ever going to materialize, or if it really matters? If the answer is “yes” then there may be a message for you from The Shawshank...

This poem by Fleur Adcock is for all the women who, like me, are on the “darker side” of forty. She reminds us that there is more to beauty than flawless skin, and that the more we choose how we want to be in the world and how we want to live our lives, the happier we...

Driving along a national road, I slow down and then stop, mirroring the response of the drivers in front of me. Curious to see the cause, I watch a mother duck leading her ducklings across the busy highway. She clearly is not aware of the danger; and her offspring...

Do you know that something in your life needs to change, but you either don’t know how to start or where to start , or you are too afraid of where starting may take you? In attempting an answer, I turn to David Whyte. This time from the opening stanza of his poem,...

As an only child and one of the youngest in my class I spent a lot of time in junior school trying to figure out the rules of social engagement. I managed well enough to avoid being bullied but it took me quite some time to become comfortable in my own skin and to...

What will be your extraordinary moment today? Walking up the steep hill close to my home, I snake-ease the muscles in my neck to relieve the tension that has been building all day. Just ahead of me, trudging up the hill, is a boy who is about nine-years-old. With his...

“Your future is your property. Because, by definition, it hasn’t happened yet, it exists only in your mind. This means that you can choose to make it whatever you want. The act of making your future bigger than your past is the very act of growth itself: the bigger...

” A prophet is not without honour, except in his own country.” Searching for Sugarman, about the enigmatic  Mexican American musician, Rodriguez, is one of the most moving films I have seen. A hugely talented musician and songwriter, Rodriguez writes powerfully and...

How’s that for the first line of a poem? Probably not a line you would like to share, out of context, with your children or teenagers. But it’s a radical statement. Mary Oliver, the poet, isn’t exhorting us to be bad. She’s encouraging us to be authentic; to be...

Do you feel as though your creativity has dried up and that you will never write another story or poem; never paint or sink your fingers into clay again? There is  good news. Your creativity has not disappeared. You are probably just exhausted from trying to be all...

Knowing how difficult it is for many of us to make significant changes, I have enormous admiration for the easeful way in which other forms of life surrender to changes in their external world. Recently, on a retreat at Solitude, in the Midlands, I watched an autumn...