In 2021, Lent begins Wednesday, 17 February What do you need if you’re interested in Lent this year? Do you want to do some kind of traditional or modern fasting? Do you want to try a new spiritual practice for six weeks, or do a new kind of change-the-world activity? Is there some aspect of Jesus’ […]
This is part of a series aiming to help us all go easier on ourselves and make our parenting lives more enjoyable and satisfying. The whole series list is here and more links are at the bottom of the post. [Update: 2.5 years later I’ve revised this and added some stuff in. Feel free to suggest […]
As you can tell, I’m really enjoying exploring Lent on the blog this year. To help you navigate the labyrinth of posts coming from different angles, here’s a quick reference guide. Sacraparental Lent for Kids (and adults!) 2014 These are the posts I have written or plan to write, with links to the ones that […]
This handy rule for when to complain and to whom has buzzed around my Facebook feed this week, with lots of passionate commendations: When Susan had breast cancer, we heard a lot of lame remarks, but our favorite came from one of Susan’s colleagues. She wanted, she needed, to visit Susan after the surgery, but […]
I can’t remember if I first fell a bit in love with political activist and film-maker Michael Moore when he made Bowling for Columbine, a documentary polemic arguing for saner gun control in his home country of the United States. It was either then or when my friend Steven, who had lived in the US, […]
My toddler has been deeply asleep for two hours, and looks like he won’t need anything more than a lying-down, half-asleep feed between now and morning. So why am I writing a blog post instead of catching up on the sleep I missed last night when he was up every hour? Because, like many parents, […]
O email! O you super-convenient marvel! O you disappointing eater of time! Are you in control of your inbox or does your heart sink when you open your email? How much time a day, a week, do you spend on reading and writing email messages? How much of that would you like back? If there was […]
I’ve never had a December like this one. Impressed with a friend’s insightful comment on Facebook about a school prizegiving ceremony, I asked her if she would be interested in doing a guest blog post about it. She was gracious in turning me down, just pointing out that being a pastor, it was a busy […]
Letters of Note is an extraordinary site, publishing transcripts and facsimiles of fascinating correspondence. There’s a huge range. The most popular letter ever on the site is this one from a former slave to his former master. The most recent is this beautiful letter from Fiona Apple, written just last week, to her fans in […]
There’s too much bad news in the world. And there’s more than there used to be. Go to your usual media source of news and count: how many bad news stories in the top ten? There’s a lot to choose from. There are currently a dozen or so major wars in the world. Whenever you read […]