I wish you shelter from the storm, A cosy fire to keep you warm, But most of all, when snowflakes fall I wish you love. Music Leo Chauliac, English lyrics Albert A Beach Sung beautifully here by Blossom Dearie It wouldn’t be Valentine’s Day if we didn’t think about love, would it? And I’m thinking…
Category Archives: Community
We go bonobo
There’s a passage in Jean Shinoda Bolen’s excellent book Gather the Women, Save the World in which she talks about the little-known bonobo ape. Like chimpanzees, bonobos share 98% of their DNA with us humans, but unlike the male-dominated, warlike chimpanzee, bonobos would rather make love than war and are female-dominated, although this domination is lightly…
Not another social network!
Perhaps you’re on Facebook or Twitter or Google+ or LinkedIn or all of them and more. Perhaps you’re not on any social network at all and can’t see the point. Perhaps you don’t know what the hell a social network is (click here!). Are you visual? If you’re overcommitted and feel like you’re going under…
Are you an old maid?
I stumbled across an article on the Open University website this week that I thought readers might find interesting. Dr Jill Reynolds, a senior lecturer at the OU, has been researching singleness in women and especially “the way women talk about singleness and what that tells us about the society in which we live”. She…
Seven ways to create local community
Thanks for all the interesting comments on my post about virtual community. It made me think about creating real-life community, locally. Because we can’t live only online. There are dangers as we grow older: of getting too cosy, or too isolated, or too accommodating. Some of us may be suffering from empty nest syndrome as our children move out. For…
Can you create true community online?
I need your help with this one. A friend I know in real life (we have to make these distinctions now) is interested, sceptical and, I suspect, slightly horrified at the world of online courses and retreats, which she’s just found for the first time through an email invitation. She’s an experienced group leader (real…
Exploring the crone
Today I’m delighted to publish a guest post by my wise and wonderful friend Dr Lynne Scholefield. Lynne is a recently retired lecturer in religious studies, with interests in travel, inter faith dialogue and facilitating small group work. We also teach the Enneagram together. She has some very thought-provoking ideas about the journey to the…
How to listen
Pardon? What? Well you know how to listen, right? Just point your ear in someone’s direction and off you go. But of course it doesn’t work like that. We listen with half an ear while formulating our responses. We’re talking here about active listening, compassionate listening. Leaving space for communication without words. Growing our communities…
Lightness and joy
People often look at me strangely when I mention I’m a Benedictine. I suspect many wouldn’t know what Benedictine monks and nuns were if not for the Brother Cadfael books and TV series, and for that unlikely hit reality show filmed at Worth Abbey, The Monastery. But me? A Benedictine? I catch furtive glances as…
Growing older disgracefully
If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun Katherine Hepburn I‘m so glad you’re here, reading this first blog post on my new site for women wanting to grow older on our own terms. Have you ever felt a frisson of rebellion at the idea of aging elegantly? Is there only so…
