Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it; they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. Steve Jobs I was looking for quotes for the … Read More
How to Connect When It Feels Hard
A few years ago, I realised that the times I felt most hopeless as a parent were when I felt disconnected, when one of my daughters and I had argued and there seemed to be no bridge between us. I’d be in one room, feeling stuck, and she would be in another. I would see a long sad path before us in … Read More
Life Is – And that’s enough
Do you ever have the feeling that you are alone in the world? Everyone else is off having some party to which you weren’t invited? They are all more successful than you, have more friends, more fun, more everything? Or, do you sometimes sit alone and imagine millions of other people sitting alone too? Do you wish you could somehow … Read More
We Meet in Emotions
Saturday would have been my father’s birthday. Would have been: in those three words you know something of how I felt yesterday and feel today. As you read my opening sentence, you probably remembered the people who have gone from your life, and whose leaving still causes you, at times, to feel a lump in your throat and prickling behind … Read More
Magic Happens When Compassion Flows
The sun is shining in through my window, and the cat is outside curled on the garden seat, soaking up the warmth. Daffodils bow their heads; the grass is so long I will have to get the lawnmower out before the day is over. January’s cold dark days seems a long way off. Yet, images of January flit through my … Read More
How to Nurture Self-Compassion in Hard Times
It’s easy to be kind to ourselves when life is going swimmingly. Not so easy when the script in our heads isn’t playing out, and life has taken twists and turns we didn’t plan and didn’t want. Years ago, I had a fantasy that it was possible to never feel emotional pain. I’d read several of those “positive thinking” articles … Read More
If not me, then who? All of us. #1000Speak the Thank Yous
People keep saying to me, “You are amazing.” Or, “Thank you so much for this.” Or, “What you’ve done is incredible.” I’m not going to be falsely modest and say it was nothing. That would probably be irritating, but it would also be dishonourable to what we have created here. Because 1000 Voices Speak For Compassion is amazing, and every … Read More
He Is Worthy of Compassion
A friend and I were walking home after shopping, two days before Christmas. It was already dark, and though I was wrapped in a thick coat and scarf, the cold hit my face. It would freeze again soon. The street was crowded with shoppers, talking, walking, or waiting for buses. A few people walked past arm in arm, on their … Read More
Believe in Love, Not in Powerlessness
My elder daughter and I are standing at traffic lights, waiting to cross the road. I look down at her – small for a six-year-old – and a huge wave of joy and gratitude for her existence washes over me. She looks up, smiles and says, “I know.” “What do you know?” I ask. (Though really, I know what she’s … Read More
Silver Linings Thanks-Book
This week there has been another birthday and a lot of other stuff. Much of it has not been what I’d choose, but there are silver linings – at least in most things. And whatever life gives to us, however much we might fight it or wish it different, life goes on and the sun comes up each day (even … Read More
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