Secret places inside this violent world
Time for some more of Rumi’s poetry, again in the translation of Coleman Barks, from Bridge to the Soul: Journeys into the Music and Silence of the Heart. I am sure I have said this before, but Rumi...
View ArticleFifty Shades yet again
On my continuing journey through Fifty Shades of Feminism, edited by Lisa Appignanesi, Rachel Holmes and Susie Orbach, I have just come across a new highlight. It’s Susie Orbach’s contribution,...
View ArticleFriendship and intimacy
I urge you … to open your heart to friendship and intimacy, remembering that your friendships are an extension of your contemplative prayer. They are indeed contemplative friendships. As mystical...
View ArticleOn love, maturity, emotions, living in the present, problems, grief and stoicism
Here are some more thoughts from Alain de Botton’s book On Love. First of all, on falling in love: Albert Camus suggested that we fall in love with people because, from the outside, they look so whole,...
View ArticleFriendship
Friendship is a basic and vital human relationship that forms the social fabric of our lives. It is in and through friendships that we discover our identity, gain our sense of value and place in the...
View ArticleNot So Afraid – a poem about friendship, among other things
The sparrows are spinning warmth into the winter world. Their delicate, clear chirps bring with them a crisp joy, making me not so afraid of the howling wind. So, too, the friends of my heart. Joyce...
View ArticleThe great falsity of colonisation, the art of letting go – and some other...
John O’Donohue is one of the most evocative writers I know. His books, his thoughts, his phraseology are like beautiful cathedrals to me, beautiful cathedrals made of words. Here are some passages from...
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