The ugly duckling song came into my head this morning. For those who do not remember the old story, it is about a duck who is disliked because he is ugly – but he turns out, in the end, to be a beautiful swan, whereupon he is admired by all. And I thought – there […]
Even the Boss should clean the Loo
Watching Master Chef earlier this year, something happened which gave me, if you’ll pardon the pun, food for thought. At one point in the penultimate episode, one of the contestants was running late, and one of the others went to help her. He had a deadline too and this episode would put him into the final […]
Seven Ages of Man
I recently stayed in a holiday resort where there were a lot of retired fire fighters, many of them having been injured on the job, some permanently. I got talking to groups of them and some got up from the table where we had been eating and talking, stiffly, and with difficulty, clearly in pain. […]
The Author’s Voice
This is the first time that I have wanted to reply to The Author. It was the editor’s letter which drew me, and words like author’s voice… authenticity. I was going to add genius to the list, but just now on the third reading I find the word is not there. I will pretend it was. It was when I […]
Meditations
I wonder if I am paying more attention lately, looking at things more closely. Have been hearing a lot about ‘mindfulness’ these days: being in the moment. I expect we all receive greetings cards with pictures of flowers, and flowers in vases. One of the most common subjects for cards, perhaps. I have more than most, as […]