I’ll tell you what I believe…. I believe that you need to know what you stand for. I believe that you need to know where the boundaries of what you are willing to accept lay. It is clear that you have to know which aspects of your life are negotiable and which are not negotiable. …
I became aware of the notion of clean versus dirty pain this week. My Psychologist made me aware of it because it is a very significant point in mental health. I was probably aware of it implicitly, but making something explicit helps you to come to terms with it. Essentially, clean distress is a good …
I will give you the treasures of darkness and the riches hidden in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by name. Isaiah 45:3 There are certain lessons and blessings in life that we can only access through struggle. These lessons are deep …
It is an apparent contradiction that we can develop strength through weakness, yet many texts reflect this idea. Without going into all of them, the most famous is of course our salvation through Jesus Christ, who was willing to become weak so that we might be saved. The Son of God taking the form of …
It’s funny that when you do a literature search surrounding rescue, renewed hope or dare I say salvation, the image of a fluffy bunny rarely emerges in any serious text. Indeed when you study the real meaning of Easter, you don’t find any mention of chocolate. Now in the spirit of kindness and not wanting …
He sat motionless in a late model SUV, surrounded by greyness. The underground car park where he had stopped was just coming to life. The plan had been to get some essentials from the supermarket upstairs after he had dropped the children at school. He knew that if he had turned around and gone home …
He’d been that way before. Walked those worn concrete paths when things were at their darkest. Without his children’s unending desire for hot chips, he’d have stayed at home. Indoors, depressed and out of sight. He would have never left the house for fear of all that unspecified danger, except that the children knew him …
The ethereal nature of hot chips. A story of transcendence in two parts. Read More »
Life is all about patterns. Routine creates predictability. The recurring responsibilities and their inherent predictability end up being relied upon to keep us steady. The jobs that we complain about so often, end up becoming the foundations that keep everything in place.
I sit heavily by the side of life’s dusty, hot and rocky pathway. My blistered feet are covered in dirt and an ageing suitcase only just bears my weight. I sit morosely and watch others pass by in the flow of enthusiasm. They have clear directions in their heads and hope in their hearts, whilst …
Many times over the last few years, I have found the songs, poems and words of others that speak of mental health so valuable. Not only those words that offered specific advice, though they were important, but the personal and vulnerable ones. Even those songs with simple explanations of what it is like, filled me …
