» Personal Blog

The other day my brother, who has turned into a fanatical angler, came to take me out for a day’s fishing.  When I was much younger it was something I loved to do but have seldom had the chance to do it in the last 30 years.  He had to lug the now obligatory 2cwt […][...] read more » Gone Fishing

I spent an exhausting day mixing concrete to repair our rather badly eroded and cracked driveway.  I guess time will tell what kind of job we have done but there is little chance it could be any worse than it already was!  It occurred to me that perhaps most of us have to rebuild on […][...] read more » Building on cracked foundations

One of the odder aspects of my recent experiences has been that not only have I been trying to pick up the ‘load’ of Carys’s role/work in the home and family but because of my circumstances, having to take an enforced ‘sabbatical’, I have found myself experiencing aspects of her life for myself.  I’m at […][...] read more » Walking a mile in her shoes

“It’s good to talk” is such a commonly held belief that it became a BT advertising slogan a while back.  Everyone seems to think that you need to talk after a traumatic event and it will somehow how help you.  I have to say that the experience of my family has been otherwise; none of […][...] read more » Who do you talk to?

I’ve been been spending much more time at home since I had to stop driving (and that is no surprise) and with that that there has been a certain withdrawal, a bit like the trees withdrawing the sap from their leaves before they drop them in the autumn.  This may just be par for the […][...] read more » No particular place to go…

Grieving is a process that happens when you lose something or someone.  I leant about the stages of this when I trained as a change facilitator as people do grieve for the things they left behind in a the course of Change.  Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross described it as a five stage process:- Denial Anger Bargaining […][...] read more » Grieving

We have just had a wonderful week in Tuscany.  We hired a villa located half way up a mountain and there was all the peace and quiet you could wish for.  It seemed to make reflection unavoidable.  One of the things that I found tough was not having someone there to share and explore these […][...] read more » Someone to talk to

Today was a strange day.  It is the first time on a Monday morning that all my children have been out to work at the same time and today I was here, home alone.  The house is silent.  I have cores to get on with of course, things to clean, calls to make and a […][...] read more » Home Alone

There was some tension in the air at home and I always hate this but couldn’t put my finger on what was causing it.  Then my daughter cracked and said that she didn’t feel all that she was doing was being seen or appreciated.  She didn’t mind doing it but needed to feel that it […][...] read more » The Power of “Thank you”

When you lose someone close to you you are pitched into a place where you have to learn and think about all manner of things that most of us choose to avoid most of the time.  You have to find out how to dispose of a body and think through what should be done with […][...] read more » Last Will