Like trudging through mud, I feel I’ve clawed my way through 2022. Though bright spots of joy peak out through the clouds, the onslaught of the uphill climb has rained down on me like few other years.  I know, I should have had a brilliant year of snuggling my newborn, celebrating my new-to-Big-School daughter and…

Be a camp fire, not a candle! This little refrain has cropped up in my house – it’s odd, I know – but it has been adopted quickly and seemingly effectively – even by my youngest. Here’s the backstory… At school my eldest has been learning about fire safety and so naturally we spent Friday night…

Recently, I have said tearful goodbyes to friends as they set sail across the seas to settle into new adventures under non-African skies. I have had the enormous privilege of knowing a plethora of spirited and brave individuals that have scaled challenges and opportunities across the globe throughout my life. Some have returned to re-plant…

Jesus fell asleep on a boat in a storm. Read that again! He actually fell ASLEEP – as in, no care in the world, just drifting on off to slumber-land. He fell asleep on. a. BOAT! Like, what? A rocking, swaying seasickness-sucker. He just lay on down, fluffed his pillow (did he have one?) and…

I hope you don’t mind me writing this to you. I hope it’s ok that I vent my fears to you in this way. That I spread my hands on the table and show you all my cards, the emotions I have pent up inside me, because I don’t know where else to put them. I…

Make the most of every moment, but also breathe deeply and don’t subscribe to the productivity laws of Lock Down. Make the most of every moment, but also be sure to practise self-care, and kid-care and soul-care and pet-care. Make the most of each moment, but also stay connected to the world, but not to…

In a season of silly and sterile, panic and persuasive stats. Here, in this unprecedented moment I realise… It’s all we have. We, in isolation and distance, we only have EACH DAY as. it. comes. And without fail, each day comes with new stats, and new stress. New transmissions and new concerns. Right now, we…

When I look back over the past few years I marvel at what seems to me as inconsistency. I haven’t been the stable (mentally and otherwise!) person I hope to be. I haven’t been at everything, nor have I *wanted* to. I haven’t stuck to the gym schedule or the sleep schedule or the work…

As my eldest has stretched out of last season’s clothes and into her new phase of way more emotional and situational acumen than I thought possible. And as she has stretched me to my limits with her emotions, her defiance, her very-normal-four-year-old behaviour I have found my guilt grow apace. Guilt at how I handle…

As I scrolled through the momentous Cape Town marches I halted at an image of a poster… It read: “We can’t breathe” That black ink etched onto a piece of cardboard gave voice to my churning heart: I can’t breathe! You see, fear sneaks in and snakes it’s way around my emotional airway, Edging out…