This time last year I was toing and froing on commissioning an editor to review a resurrected novel of mine. Even then I was caught between the ambition to release it and the desire to obliterate it completely. One moment I’d consider it a worthy effort, which I should at last set free. The next …
How daft the teenager, straight out of college, who believes they’re going to change the world. How idiotic the youngster who longs to impose their minuscule understanding on all of society. Yesterday they were kids, playing with toys; today they’re our new challengers, seeking to bring to life a pious utopia they just read about, …
I can’t be what I’m not. I can’t help what I am. Life is learning to reconcile these realities.
I’d love to tell people of the strangeness I’ve seen, but I can’t, so I just write it down in a blog that nobody reads instead. I probably wouldn’t believe it either if another told me such tales. The rational mind can’t conceive of these things until it sees them for itself.
Be content, I must remind myself daily. And be grateful too. These the conversations with my wayward self as those morning blues descend. I sit down to start work early, to do an hour before the kids arise for school, but soon my mind wanders… Pondering upon all of those contemporaries of mine, who despite …
You can’t put a price on your experiences. Not everything we do leads to some monetary gain or increase in prestige or status. I don’t feel my undergraduate degree benefitted me in my worldly life, but I found faith midway through, for which I am immensely grateful. I don’t feel my postgraduate degree helped get …
My beloved toys with returning to work. I say: if you really want to, choose to do something you love. Do something that appeals to you, which will make you happy. Don’t go yearning for a job that demands a tiring commute, or a workplace in which you will daily have to battle racial discrimination. …
For me, my namesake is a gem of our community. We are unalike in nearly every way: he is a brilliant intellectual, articulate in speech, spiritual, courageous and of profound learning. Those who know me will confirm that in speech, I struggle to string together a coherent sentence, my mind given to blackouts mid-thought. In …
Wandering in the woods yesterday, I couldn’t but be touched observing that so-called mixed relationships are now not just accepted, but have become the norm. At one point, where footpaths converged, it was like the meeting of the united nations. Gone the days — at least in that square kilometre of woodland — when such …
Getting outside, beneath blue skies, sunlight falling on your face, wandering amidst nature… it makes so much difference to your mood… generating positive energy… happiness. Alhamdulilah. This afternoon, Wendover Woods. Lunch, hot chocolate, laughter with kids. A better mood all round. We must do this more often. Best to stock up on joy before the …
We have a recruitment crisis… we can’t find people with the necessary skills or experience to fill our roles… and, even if we do eventually find someone, they don’t stick around long. Is this a global phenomenon, affecting all sectors, private and public? Is it really a failure of education: a generation leaving school without …
Another afternoon with old friends, down at the allotments we once shared together. They’ve come a long way since the day we first set foot in our plot in 2002, arriving with just a screwdriver and hammer — our only tools then. Theirs is now a wonderfully productive plot, just two along from our old …
Won’t those intent on blowing up young girls attending school reflect on the verses of their Book? Have you seen the one who denies the Recompense?For that is the one who drives away the orphan.And does not encourage the feeding of the poor.So woe to those who pray,but are heedless of their prayer.Those who make …
Saturday mornings: the essential five-mile saunter with a friend, culminating with a clandestine coffee away from the family’s prying eyes. Pure pleasure.
