Month: March 2018

When I'm in the dentist's chair as  was the case today I try to think of anything but what is going to happen. Maybe the dentist will decide to drill right through my teeth and my jaw without telling me, or be so gentle that I'm scarcely aware of what is going on. I went to a Harley Street dentist a few years ago where only root canal work was performed. At the start of the treatment, he said...

There is a slogan in the USA with regard to security "if you see something then say something". That works well in a paranoid and extrovert country but it does not necessarily work well in the land in which I live, the ancient island called Great Britain. In the dim and distant past it was linked to Europe so in geological time the English Channel is an upstart. For most of recorded time the...

You see dear people there are two varieties. First let's have a look at the way that one of them, Mothers Day,  developed in 19th-century America when a lady called Ann Jarvis first organised a group of mothers to help out with sanitation at camps on both sides of the Civil War during a typhoid outbreak. These were called Mothers Day Work Clubs. The campaigning of the daughter, Anna Jarvis,...

At my monthly men's meeting which starts with a cooked breakfast at eight o'clock in the morning, the visiting speaker, John Samways, speaking with me beforehand, asked me how long I had been in 'this neck of the woods'. This meant Midsomer Norton. I realised I'd used this term for my whole life without questioning what it meant. Searching around, it could be that this was an attempt by the...

I have spoken before about the privilege of offering our services without charge and making a difference to the life of other people. You will be amazed how much the grateful clients or friends give back to you in ways that even they are not aware of. The main way they give back is by sharing their life experience.  My wife does this every Monday. She goes to spend a day with the old people at...

What a lovely word almost onomatopoeic. I heard it at 7:45 AM this morning when I was making my coffee. It reminds me of a musical instrument,  of an imagined Theophone family. The theophone is a bit like a trombone but would emit a soft, almost maudlin, tone. But I jest. The word theophany is a manifestation of God that is tangible to the human senses. In its most restrictive sense, it is a...