Over The Gospel Pass (4/5)
Before stumping up at Alex’s place, I’d usually swing by Hay-on-Wye and spend an inordinate […]
OVER THE GOSPEL PASS (3/5)
I have to say, I have a bit of a thing about solitude. Or used […]
OVER THE GOSPEL PASS (2/5)
Nigel and I met at the dawn of the 90s on a kibbutz overlooking the […]
Over the Gospel Pass (1/5)
Speeding over Gospel Pass in his battered-up Fiat Punto, Nigel and I have just arrived […]
Just like Ella
For 4 years I lived in Sydney, working as a yoga teacher and teacher trainer. […]
A Case of Emotional Baskets
There are things, simple things that I ask my 10 year old son to do. […]
Writing Down the Bones
Just read this from Natalie Goldberg… “Everyone has a great fear in life. Mine is […]
What Fritha knows…
The lead character in my new novel, is called Fritha. She’s the daughter of a […]
Levelling with the world
Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. George Addair Which, frankly, […]
Mercy, Mercy (for) Me
Mercy is one of those tragically unfashionable words like Gwendoline or doily. The reality of […]
Levitating Trains of the Mind
Back in the 80s, the boffins at Birmingham Airport (BHX) invented a floating train that […]
Shallow Holes Dug in the Earth
How do you know what’s real? What’s true? When you live with anxiety, you’re hoodwinked […]
MUSLIM MOTHER AS ARCHETYPE OF PROTECTION (3/3)
The roots of resilience…are to be found in the sense of being understood by and […]
MUSLIM MOTHER AS ARCHETYPE OF PROTECTION (2/3)
It was not a good day. I was alone in the house, a rare experience […]
MUSLIM MOTHER AS ARCHETYPE OF PROTECTION (1/3)
Walking into my classes of female Muslim learners (mostly Somali and Sudanese but also Yemeni, […]
All About my (Muslim) Mother(s)
About 6 weeks after I started teaching literacy in Bristol in 2016, my wife gave […]
We Need the R.A.I.N. (2/2)
Tara does this little trick that helped me see how my resistance to how I […]
We Need the R.A.I.N. (1/2)
I’ve been following the DC-based Buddhist teacher and clinical psychotherapist, Tara Brach, via her weekly […]
The Lies We Tell ourselves
There’s a line from Bessel Van Der Kolk’s excellent tome on trauma, The Body Keeps […]