From Fear to Courage: Little Fears and Big Fears

Come join us in this 3-hour workshop! We explore practical ways to find our way back to courage, no matter what the life brings us.  Saturday 17th May 2025, from 4pm to 7pm CET. (That’s starting at 3pm UK time or 10 am Eastern.) If fear plays a big part in your life, you’re not alone. With our world seemingly … Read More

Turbo charge your resolutions with love and compassion

4 hours of taking a good look at why we tend to give up or expect to quit. 3 amazing coaches/instructors that will show you the way back to your new-year’s intentions, action steps or resolutions!  Saturday January 18th from 4pm-8pm CET You have decided to stick to a diet, go to the gym, be kind and patient all the time … Read More

Is Compassion Natural or Nurtured? a #1000Speak post

I am dressing my baby after her vaccinations, feeling relieved we got through it without tears. She looks around, eyes wide, paying attention to the movements in the room. A mother lays her baby on the changing mat next to ours. The baby is wailing loudly. My baby turns her head to look at him. She starts crying too. We … Read More

It’s Okay To Be You – a #1000Speak post

I was a shy teenager, particularly around boys. If one of those scary creatures looked at me, I went red, even though I knew he would actually be looking beyond me to the gorgeous blonde girl or bubbly chatterbox behind. If there was nobody behind me – then he’d made a mistake and for a moment thought I was someone … Read More

The Tao of Meow

I am cooking, trying to get the food ready quickly. I notice my body feels tense, and then the cat comes in, meowing. She wants food – and not just any old food but the kind that comes out of a little sachet and has lumps of meat and gravy, and is fish. (No other flavour will do.) She has … Read More

Kindness Doesn’t Require Proof – a #1000Speak post

There’s an image going around the internet of a seed bursting open. Along with the picture, is a quote from Cynthia Occelli. I know nothing about Cynthia Occelli, other than this is what she says about seeds: For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. … Read More

Thankful for Questions

I’ve read that on average we have somewhere around 70,000 thoughts each day. I did try to work this out, but it seemed too much like hard work. After all, how long does a thought last? I don’t have a standard thought size. “Chocolate.” That didn’t take even a second. “Chocolate.” Neither did that. “I wonder if there’s any in … Read More

Let Go of Trying to be Better Than Your Parents

Russian dolls standing in a row

This post was originally published on my Inquiring Parent blog on Sep 10, 2013, and was updated on April 26, 2018.  In the weeks before my father died, we had many conversations. Sometimes, he expressed regrets. He hinted that my sister and I had done better at parenting than he did. He thought he’d done things that weren’t kind; he … Read More

Inquiry: Parents should always be consistent – Is it true?

I haven’t updated this blog for a long time for several reasons one them that my kids have been growing into teenagers and they are not so keen to share the foibles of our family life. I believe it is important to respect their wishes, so if I was to continue writing here, I needed to find a new way to … Read More