I am afraid I cannot help overhearing conversations sometimes. Recently, two people were discussing an event that they described as awful. Later, I heard the same word used in connection with something else. The same word could only be used in both contexts if the scale was defined. Without definition, either one situation was played…

I was interested and concerned to hear of the difficulties caused to attention spans by a reduction in in-person human contact during COVID. The context was younger children and an example was that because ‘Granny is on screen’ and can be turned up or down, on or off, she becomes less ‘real’. This has brought…

Today is a day that we all approach differently. I was in Brussels for a meeting on 11th November one year and remember talking about it during a break in a meeting with colleagues from around Europe. Remembrance inspires emotions ranging from the extremes of anger through to a passive thirst for knowledge, with a…

Truck drivers have been in the news lately. Last week, one part of our businesses announced the winner of the best of the nominations in an internal scheme to award someone who has done something special. Often these events are spectacular for their lack of the spectacular, but this one was different. The driver concerned…

When I was out just after breakfast on a calm and clear October morning recently, I was struck by the contrasts in the scene depicted in this photograph. There was little cloud cover but what there was ranged in colour. The foreground of recently worked cereal stubble hid the newly drilled crop and dominated, but…

We had a bit of a moment recently; I sent a photograph of a clean pair of shoes to my daughter who panicked and replied, ‘what have you done. My work shoes have gone silver?’. It was nothing of the sort of course, just a trick of the light and not a problem. When I…

There is something comforting and stabilising about an ancient Church. We are reminded often that the Church is not about buildings but people although that does not detract from the sense of permanence and calm that radiates from ancient stones. Jude wrote his letter to tackle the problem of false teaching by those who would…

The world of what I originally discovered as ‘talking books’ is one I have enjoyed for several years. When driving or walking the chance to listen to a book being read, sometimes excellently, is a joy. I vary what I listen to but take especial delight in revisiting the old classics. I have just revisited…

Jude:14-16: Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy onesto judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” These people are grumblers and…

There is nothing quite like a dispute over inheritance to bring out the worst in families or amongst friends or other benefactors if there is perceived unfairness. The deceased may have thought hard about the reasons for the way the estate is to be apportioned, and may have seen the needs or behaviours of others…