Love your Local Parks!

I was recently commissioned by the arts organisation Collective Encounters to write a poem celebrating parks and the role they have played during lockdown. I’m lucky to live near Sefton Park in Liverpool and have seen how vital a resource it has been. This poem captures how I feel about parks, the joy of natureContinue reading “Love your Local Parks!”

Keep a Safe Distance From Your Thoughts

During the Covid pandemic, with so much uncertainty around, we are bound to speculate what the future holds for our physical health, financial problems, families and social lives. Our brains are amazing tools, designed to solve problems, to anticipate, plan and organise. But at times of stress, we often search in vain for the off-switch,Continue reading “Keep a Safe Distance From Your Thoughts”

Calmness is Your Contribution

You make ripples all the time. In your actions, words, hopes, intentions and concerns you can send out vibrations with subtle influence. Whether you intend it or not, you have an influence. Our task today is to make ripples consciously. In times of uncertainty it can be easy to try too hard, and send outContinue reading “Calmness is Your Contribution”

Two Views on UK Lockdown

1. Remember how much lip service was paid to mental health in the last couple of years? It supposedly had ‘parity’ with physical health in government thinking, despite being woefully underfunded. Well,  the past month has blown all those platitudes out of the water. As long as we can keep people alive, the mental wellbeingContinue reading “Two Views on UK Lockdown”

Connecting With Wisdom

In the coming weeks and months, if you are in contact with elderly friends or relatives, ask them about times of crisis they have endured and how they dealt with the situation. Many of our living elders came through WW2, a time when entire streets were destroyed in a night, with death arriving regularly andContinue reading “Connecting With Wisdom”