People who fish our local lake spend a lot of time standing on fishing platforms like this one. It demands a lot of patience, an ability to be still and…
This morning there was something about the quality of light on this path in the local woods that brought me back to walking country lanes during childhood summers spent on…
In 2012 the legendary conservationist Lawrence Anthony died at his home in Thula Thula Game reserve in Zululand. What happened in the days following his death was truly extraordinary. Two…
One of my favourite philosophy books when I was in college was called ‘Towards Self Meaning’. It was about how we come to know ourselves, how we come to self…
Sometimes we can be devastated when we are hit by a big change that we didn’t see coming. The short book by Dr. Spencer Johnson, Who moved my cheese? is a salutary…
The Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Adichie, in her talk on www.ted.com speaks about the negative power of having only one story to tell. We are all capable of telling ourselves one story about…
This morning in Galway we had typical west coast of Ireland weather which began with dark skies, torrential rain and, as I write, the sun has emerged in all its…
Recently I acquired a pair of crutches due to a simple injury. They will be my constant companions for the next few weeks. As a writer, its still possible to…
Today marks the death of Nobel Laureate and poet, Seamus Heaney. Some years ago he was kind enough to meet with the group of writers who had contributed to The Healing…
Researchers Steven Toepfer and Kathleen Walker of Kent State University conducted an interesting study on writing about gratitude. Based on the finding that 40% of our happiness is accounted for…