This was our first break away from home since the start of the Winter lockdown. The Lake District campsite, where we stayed, was full of very happy adults and children in very holiday spirits. Lockdown, it seems, has not made us forget how to have fun. On Saturday evening Sarah and I walked down to...
It has been a while since I have written a poem. I began writing in verse at the age of seventeen – a long time ago. I was in love with life but feared its fragility. I looked up at the sky and saw God. At the time I naively thought that God taught us about himself through the intermediary of...
The desire to start a YouTube channel has been with me and my wife – for some time. We’ve been procrastinating due to our fears of putting ourselves out there. But the coronavirus lockdowns gave us extra time. No more excuses. we now have time. We either do it or we forget it and move on to...
Am I Christian anymore? So many people must ask themselves that question. I ask it all the time. For me, Christianity has become disconnected from our present-day reality. It makes being good very complicated. I feel I can be good, kind and compassionate without the need for doctrine – and without...
When I was a boy I lived on a farm. My dad was a farm labourer until I was sixteen. After many years working in the fields and living in tied cottages – accommodation tied to the job – he got a council house and became a milkman. I spent most of my childhood out in nature. I hated school and was...
It came to me, not so long ago, while I was thinking and walking along the path behind our cottage, that the routine, ordinary bits and pieces of our lives are sacred chores. Those boring bits between our holidays and family get-togethers and meetups with friends are as sacred as our visits to...
I believe that there are many people who believe in magic. Not the Harry Potter stuff but the magic that accompanies that sense of awe we often experience when we are confronted by the true magnificence of the world. Magic is a good term because, at those moments, the reality of the world appears...