Moving Forward – And feeling very positive
I know that many people can find January a bit dismal and disappointing after being very active and celebrating during the winter break, and others may be struggling a little to get back into a normal routine of working, and maybe cutting back on food, drink, finances. If you are in these positions, I wish you well, […]
Pondering Life – And how it relates to ongoing reading and writing in 2024
First and foremost: Happy New Year to all of you finding this little bit of prose. I hope you all have a great year ahead of you generally, and more especially if you are a reader or writer (or both) on Medium. I aim to be busy reading and writing this year, and hopefully that […]
Island of Silence – Tranquil existence
Listen! Nothing! I live in the middle of the city, and I have my windows open on this beautiful day, despite the cold. If I listen harder, it’s still nothing, not even the resident magpies in the trees, for now. Oh there, the vague sound of a train, and now, the hospital helicopter in the […]
Glaikit – Or embracing the slow life
“Where am I?” This is my rallying cry as I grow into the third age. It is not about being physically lost. It is more about needing an assessment of progress on thinking journeys. I take my thinking for a walk most days, living alone allowing me to do that without derogatory comments coming my […]
Ten Ways Not To Write Listicles – Excitement does not wait within
1 Don’t read rubbish like this 2 Stop getting excited by the ‘content’ word, and only allow your writing to be described as writing or the genre or sub-genre that it is. (See Clive Thompson’s great examination of ‘content’ here) 3 Remove the words ‘digital marketing’ from your vocabulary 4 Stop clicking on ‘click bait’ 5 Consider […]
In My Garden There Is A Tree – Full of red berries
I live in a place where the interior can often be disappointing, but the exterior performs so much better in the shape of the plants, shrubs, lawns and magnificent, mature trees contained within the gardens. One of those trees is looking particularly magnificent right now. It is a holly tree, or some kind of hybrid, […]
Coming Up For Breath – Fresh perspectives are a bonus
Having spent my first 3 weeks on my university course, and working with new people, re-establishing a regular writing practice (albeit for university purposes), I am already beginning to make decisions, at least in my head, about where I want to take my writing, both within the course, and after (hopefully) completing the course in […]
The Wide Blue Ocean – Contained within a Bic pen
Somewhere or another, I once wrote that I bow down in reverence to my blue BIC pen. To many, that may have seemed like a trivialisation of values to suggest that a blue BIC pen should hold such importance in my life, but it does. I would describe the physical characteristics of the pen, such […]
Notes From Dispatches – ‘Welcome Week’
From tomorrow, I disappear down that rabbit hole known as university (again, as I join an MA programme in Creative Writing and Wellbeing), this time at the age of 65 years old). I have been wading through some of the bureaucracy in the last few weeks, signing my life away for the next 2 years, […]
Generosity and Kindness – Creating contentment all around
A good friend of mine brought me some lovely fruit which comprised of pears bought at a slashed price from the bargain shelf in one of the supermarkets, apples left out on walls as spare from windfall and some delicious juicy oranges with lots of seeds, available from a car boot sale by the bagful. […]