Is it implausible that a generation of young Brits will become immigrants, heading overseas in search of a better life? Of course not, because that’s what humans have always done. We travel the world is search of comfort, wealth, security. Before us, generations of Brits settled in Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand. Others settled in …
My paternal grandmother was my greatest ally in the early days of my journey along this path. Perhaps she thought I was also hers, for she was a strict Methodist who saw similarities in my way of life to hers. In any case, she was my advocate and defender then, while my relationship with the …
This song was so influential in my mission to reform my soul, way back twenty-five years ago, and in numerous periods since. I never heard it as a love song, though, but as a conversation between my soul and God. It’s the dua (supplication) I wish I could make if I had a flexible tongue. …
Our lad blasts me, finding me fooling around: “What are you doing? You should be working!” It’s 6.30 in the evening. “Yeah, but… you never finish work this early. Stop messing around.” Yep, I’m being told off by a teenager, who’s not in the mood. And me? Well, I guess it’s role reversal, because this …
Not only graphophobia, but total paranoia. Cyber criminals on social engineering expeditions. Far-right supremacists seeking traitors. Agents of state pursuing critics. Activists silencing opponents. Worried by the pursuit of all of these, I have withdrawn in haste over and over, sending up defences. Stupid? Possibly. But such is my inner turbulence. It’s quiet in these …
If ever there was evidence that I could never be a professional writer, it is all here: I panic whenever I am read, my first reaction to withdraw, purge and bulk-delete. Always, always the same reaction. Gone two novels, one book and a thousand posts, taken back in alarm. I guess I’m just not confident …
Some Muslims insist on calling themselves Salafi. Others, Sunni, Shii or Sufi. I say: leave all that. It’s just politics. No, just I am, I am, I am. All ego. That’s not what we’re called to. We’re called to feed the poor, clothe the destitute, free slaves, care for widows and orphans, establish justice, oppose …
My faith has been found hugely wanting these past two years, my ingratitude coming to the fore. I’m ashamed of my reaction to a friend’s act of kindness last winter, thinking only to keep us warm. And here we are, a year on, keeping ourselves warm just as he intended. I had to apologise afterwards, …
Time, age and maturity changes our perspectives. I once considered it a curse that I had the double whammy of a very religious family and a chromosome disorder, causing the difference which made my interactions with others somewhat complicated. Now that I’m older, I suppose I can see that there were blessings in those circumstances. …
I acknowledge that the agitation which has afflicted me the past two years is entirely my fault, the result of revisiting an old novel of mine in the midst of lockdown, when there seemed to be little else to do. I worked hard on it in my spare time that year, as our summer travel …
Yet more evidence of how unjust I was having my almighty meltdown a year ago. That pile of logs has been keeping us warm for weeks now. Even more so through this freezing chill.
A good and much-needed reminder.
