Why Sufficiency Matters…
Perhaps you have heard the story of the wealthy businessman who on a brief holiday to a lonely island encounters a poor fisherman, and buys some fish from him. The fish is magnificent, better tasting than anything the wealthy man had eaten before. He immediately interrogates the fisherman – where did he catch this, was it unusual? The fisherman assured him that it was a typical days catch – nothing out of the ordinary. Quick to see the commercial potential in this find, the businessman gets deeper into conversation with the poor man and asks how he spends his time The man replies...
Read MoreRefresh: What to do with your one wild and precious life? Alcuin’s answer
I do love it when I stumble upon a relatively little known character from history and suddenly realise how much we all owe to them. Alcuin definitely fits into this category. Read on for more of his 8th century life… including his role in devising modern punctuation and the question mark. It’s definitely worth a refresh of this post which originally appeared in May 2022. Wonder what to do with your one wild and precious life? Alcuin’s answer… “Tell me, what is it you plan to do With your one wild and precious life?” asks Mary Oliver in her poem The Summer...
Read MoreBecause the Goal of the Journey is the Company…
I’ve often heard it said that when we are young, we think that the goal of the journey is its destination. It’s about getting somewhere. As we get older (and hopefully wiser), we see that the goal of the journey is the journey. In other words, what we do is good in itself, and we find pleasure along the way, regardless of if we finish up at some desired endpoint, or fall short of that target. More recently I heard this extended one step further, “the goal of the journey,” said the speaker, “is not the destination, or the journey, but the company we have along...
Read MoreRefresh: From FOMO to Hello to Here…
It can be hard to be “here where my feet are” – especially if we are driven by anxiety over what we might be missing out on. This reflection was originally posted in Dec 2019, and I thought it more than met the requirements to appear as a Refresh… From FOMO to Hello to Here Do you, like me, often want to be somewhere else? It’s not that I’m unhappy where I am, it’s just that in a world filled with many options and possibilities – well, why wouldn’t you explore them all? Those younger than me tell me it’s FOMO, aka fear of missing out. Here’s the irony. FOMO can...
Read MoreBeing Counter Cultural: Opposing the 3P’s of Polarisation, Popularism and Post-truth
I’ve been working through Alastair Campbell’s book, But What Can I Do? It’s a call to relevant political engagement at a time characterised by polarisation, popularism and post-truth. Campbell sees these three P’s as the curse of our time, dangerous tools used by power holders for short term gains at the expense of long term flourishing. It’s hard to deny his analysis. He is adamant that far too many political leaders are simply not “serious” people, but that they are chasing the latest head line to ensure their name is on everyone’s lips. You...
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