One of the birthday constants in my family growing up was Dad writing a poem – usually rhyming couplets, but sometimes a haiku – in each birthday card. I wish I had kept more of them. You can tell families apart by how they celebrate birthdays. What’s important in your household? Must there be presents? […]
‘It’s always easier to write someone else’s sermon’ is the motto of my preaching group. On a Friday morning, all five of us might be squeezing one word at a time out onto the pages of our own sermons, but when an email comes through asking for a movie clip showing non-conformist children, a song […]
A warm welcome and heartfelt thanks to Stephanie, a Dunedin mother, lawyer and regular commenter here, who is generously telling some of her story of baby loss today. She is available to talk further in the comments, so do feel free to ask questions and share your experiences. I always feel uncomfortable when a stranger […]
We’ve just returned to Wellington after two months in the United Kingdom spending time with family and friends. One of the many blessings of a long trip away from home is the space for planning and reflecting, while still distant. I spent some time while in the UK thinking about how I want to spend […]
If you had a six-year-old child, and institutional schooling had never existed, how would you go about preparing them for adult life? In the next few posts on unschooling, I want to tease out a few different issues and discuss them separately. Today it’s the different social experiences schooled and unschooled (or homeschooled) kids have. […]
I had a nightmare recently, where my husband and I were both sent to prison – separate prisons. I don’t remember what we were convicted of or whether we’d done it. I just remember the horror of realising that our punishment was the break-up of our family. How appalling. I did a criminology paper at […]
Lord, Holy Spirit, You blow like the wind in a thousand paddocks, Inside and outside the fences, You blow where you wish to blow. A superawesome cartoon activity sheet and a poem from a wild, long-haired Catholic pilgrim, James K Baxter. That’s something for everyone, right? I’ll even throw in a link to some flax […]
This is a slightly updated version of an earlier post on Mother’s Day – back when I thought it should be spelt ‘Mothers’ Day’. I’ve changed my mind, so here’s the new version, complete with a swan pic 🙂 Mother’s Day: a day for great ambivalence. I’m not from a big Mother’s-Day-celebrating family, and neither […]
An anonymous reflection from a regular reader. Being in a minority is tough. It can be very painful trying to fit into a dominant culture when you are different in some significant way, in a way that sets you apart. Our culture often tells us that being single is bad, that happy people are in […]
It is a legal right in New Zealand for all children to have free education that meets their needs. This includes the right to ‘special education’ for people under 21 years old who need extra support, or something different from the usual classroom teaching. The vision statement of the Ministry of Education, in relation to […]