This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its...
Lymphomaniacs. That’s my dear husband’s name for this little old sheepdog, Nell, and me. Four years ago, she was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Well, it turns out that I have exactly the same kind of lymphoma, happily caught early and confined to exactly the...
I’m not a great believer in the traditional ‘New Year resolutions’. More often than not, they seem designed to put pressure on an already exhausted system – bodies and souls that should be deep in winter repose, resting in the heart of the long,...
For the past couple of decades of my life, the wild places in which I’ve been fortunate enough to live have centred me and informed me. Taught me the most important lessons I’ve needed to learn. I’ve immersed myself in every bog, headland, beach, loch, wood. Rooted,...
Those of us who are students of history, and others of us who are walking around with our eyes wide open and something resembling a long view, can clearly see what is happening all around us right now. The crumbling of empire; the excruciating death-throes of a...
