A warm welcome to this year’s Advent in Art series, where we join thousands of others in contemplating artistic works while we wait, wait, wait for Christmas. For an introduction to this series, and He Qi, the artist featured in 2014, please see the first post, on the Annunciation. Week 2: The Visitation The mood […]
Happy Advent, everyone! A warm welcome to this year’s Advent in Art series, where we join thousands of others in contemplating artistic works while we wait, wait, wait for Christmas. Advent in Art 2014: Featuring artist He Qi He Qi is one of my favourite artists, so I’m particularly excited that this year’s Advent in […]
Welcome! This is a reworking of an earlier post, from March 2013 (just so I’m not soliciting undue sympathy: I’m fine now!). Being a woman equals being in community. The same might feel true for men (I hope it does), but I can’t write that blog post, being in possession, as I am, of two […]
Jess Berentson-Shaw lives in on the side of a windswept Wellington hill. Jess has two kids, is a part time researcher and scientist, and runs (and blogs about) her social enterprise called muka kids (mukakids.com). Muka kids is her plan to bring about a sustainability revolution in the world of kids’ clothing production. She has […]
Oh, the shame! I love the days when my 2.5 year old son gets mistaken for a girl (Yus! No arbitrary gendered fashion advice for us, thanks!), when he plays with a tea-set, or when he says his favourite colour is pink (just the once, and I’ve seen no actual evidence of this, but it’s […]
Nah, don’t worry, I’m not going to launch into a breastfeeding campaign using biblical texts to convince you of anything. I just thought this was a nice point made by someone on the Dulce de Leche blog. Peter writes in his first New Testament letter: Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, […]
The latest booklovers’ chain-letter going around Facebook seems to be a challenge to list (without too much agonising) your ten most ‘influential’ books. Heavens. To stay in the spirit of the challenge I’ve tried to write this in one sitting, presumably missing a lot of worthy contenders, but hopefully capturing some kind of truth. And […]
We don’t know for sure that Mary was a breastfeeding mother, but it seems a reasonable inference. In a time before formula and modern medical care, she would have had few other options, and if she or someone else hadn’t breastfed Jesus he would almost certainly have died in infancy, from malnourishment or water-borne disease, […]
Why a ‘sacrament’? The church has long taught that there are certain special moments where God is particularly present in our world. The ritual of baptism, the sharing of a communion meal. Different church traditions have argued about how many there are, but that seems to me to be a nonsensical question. God is particularly […]
Hooked by these fabulous, science-based happiness infographics (I’ll pop one at the bottom of the post – too much scrolling otherwise!), I’ve started using Happify, an online service full of activities and prompts to help lift mood and build happiness in your life. A couple of weeks in and I’m a fan. As you know, I’m […]