Spring Has Sprung As I write this piece the rain is lashing my windows and the Winter Olympics is on the TV. It has been a chaotic start to the year in my house and I’m reeling from the notion that we haven’t actually completed two months of the year yet! Back in the summer …
Anxiety and All the Feels Our brains are amazing, most of the time! Until they begin to get stuck in the same mode, dishing out hormonal responses to things that are not actually happening, for example for someone who has an anxiety disorder. For the anxiety sufferer the brain is working against them, sending their …
Running on Empty in 2021 I have been running on empty for much of this year, if running on empty means low energy, severe brain fog and extreme fatigue. The stresses and strains of lockdowns, the ever changing rules about what’s restricted and what’s not, the strangeness of my body just simply stopping me in …
Summer Holidays In the UK we spend a lot of our time wishing for summer, for warm, light days that seem to stretch out forever. As kids we’re waiting for the long holidays to begin, remembering these days as blissful, no expectations, no racing to get to school, no homework and so on and so …
WARNING: Spoilers! I have tried to be vague but there are huge spoilers for anyone who hasn’t yet seen all the episodes and wants to. If you’d told me, back in 2008, that I would cry as much as I would laugh or be in awe of a bunch of films about superheroes, I’d have …
Advent – the liminal space I wasn’t brought up in the Anglican church, so I hadn’t heard much about Advent and the beginning of the church year until well into adulthood. Now though, there is something quite other-worldly, something quite unsettling about the time that runs up to Christmas. We might be rushing about buying …
Be aware of ‘Zoom fatigue’ and plan in some time outdoors each day, within government guidelines, to try and blow those cobwebs away.
Route Mapping for Youth Workers We stand in the edge of something new, not a temporary change, not a small tweak but the beginning of a new way of living. A whole new world, to borrow a line from Disney. What do we as youth workers need to know about the way ahead? Mourn We …
Soothsayer: being a Mum of teenagers As a lifelong youth worker and cheerleader of those working with young people I’d sort of expected that I would be prepared for the parenting of a teenager or two. Oh how wrong I was. Being the parent of a teenager is exhausting, terrifying, stressful and requires a widening …
The Hospitality ‘Gene’ Isn’t it fascinating how much is passed down from one generation to another? There’s genetics and the scientific building blocks of our body shape, skin colour, eye and hair colour, including in some cases, illnesses etc. There’s also the traits we have picked up via the nurture (or otherwise) of our parents …
