…to affix polythene sheeting to all the windows and sellotape over all the gaps in an effort to keep the house warm! Merriment indeed. 🌴
There’s really nothing I enjoy more in life than pranking the kids by hiding the TV remote. Such hilarity. Laughing therapy. Hours of fun to be had.
My wife and I were discussing this question, for it’s been in the news. As an outsider, from elsewhere, she felt such a question is just smalltalk, designed to break the ice, coming after the obligatory comments about the weather and, “Did you watch the match last night?” But perhaps her response is based upon …
The past few months have changed everything: my understanding of the major events of my life, in particular. It all began when my beloved discovered — in her attempt to understand my persistent blues and aching limbs — that I had been neglecting treatment for well over two years. In truth, I’ve been neglecting it …
It doesn’t matter. My beloved always says, “The believer does not grieve over the past, nor worry about the future.” All that happened happened, as it had to. And indeed there were reasons for all that happened too. That was my road to travel. So forget about it. Water under the bridge. Moments long gone. …
Anger and that burning desire for revenge will consume you if you let it. Conversely, forgiveness will lighten your load, lifting a weight from your shoulders. Therefore forgive and make peace. Forgive those that wrong you, making room for them in your heart. Replace your bitter rancour with a good word instead. That’s the way …
Aspiring people often send their children to private school, in the belief that they’re investing in their future success. My paternal grandfather was a working class lad, leaving school at sixteen. Upon leaving the army after the war, he worked his way up the social ladder in local business, becoming director of a manufacturing company, …
At the turn of the last decade, twelve years ago, we were united with those two little angels who took over our life. All of a sudden, we were thrown in at the deep-end, learning the art of the nappy-change, feeding and ceaseless care, as those vulnerable infants came to define our lives. Our house …
Frequently, while socialising with friends, conversations turn jokey, about how awful married life is. Analogies of prison are often invoked, causing much hilarity all around. But I tend to be quite frank with friends at this point. I don’t relate to that vision at all. For me, marriage was and is a huge mercy, for …
Social media, as much as traditional media, tells us when it is acceptable to grieve, and which victims are worthy of our sympathies, and which are not. There will be a profile overlay for victims of some atrocities, but not others. Certainly, there will be no way to stand in solidarity with the victims of …
I’ve never been very good at making dua, but on those occasions I have sincerely fallen down on my face in prayer — mostly at my most desperate — my supplications have usually been answered in truly astounding ways. One such prayer came towards the end of my masters studies in Scotland at the turn …
If you’re worried about the decline of Christianity in England, go to church. Don’t go blaming those who take their faith seriously. If less than half the population identity as Christian, it has nothing to do with practitioners of minority faiths. It just means more people identify with no religion whatsoever. Hardly surprising. If you …
Increasingly, I find that the past decade has become a blur, and I start to forget all that we have done through the years. The blur coincides with two things: raising a family, and finding more stability at work. Fortunately, I also have two things to counteract it: a blog with which I have accidentally …
This will sound daft to all but myself, but daily I grow evermore worried that I’m residing in a VR simulation, for things keep on happening which are simply… well… implausible. Of course, the answer to that from a faith perspective is that material-only explanations of the world are faulty. While a biologist might posit …
