I am poorly. My throat is raw, my nose is running and my right eye-lid is twitching. Today is a work day for us, and so this morning I’ve been dutifully sitting at my desk, dealing with a bit of email, printing out some new leaflets for the temple… None of this work is urgent. […]

a single pink petal lounges in the sea of the grey-blue washing up bowl I just became a single pink petal for a few moments. As I wrote this short piece, I remembered spotting the petal in the washing up bowl and searched for a word. Was the petal floating in the water? That’s a boring […]

Before I wrote this blog, I invited myself to sit down with a cup of chicory in my grey bucket chair. I watched the blackbird skip and hop along the low wall, and let my eyes rest on the morning mist veiling the valley. I enjoyed the fierce gold sparkles in Quan Yin’s halo on my wall […]

After a spell at Patheos, this is where I’ll be sharing my thoughts from now on. You can expect the usual smorgasbord: stories from the temple, things I got wrong and learnt from, mindful writing, consolation, Buddhist spiritual teaching and teachings from other traditions, bunnies, chocolate and probably a little bit more chocolate. I’m looking […]

Our culture is one which is geared in many ways to help us evade any need to face this inner, silent self. ~ Thomas Merton Dunk, marinate, drizzle, dress. These are the words written on the bottle of olive oil standing on our red-painted kitchen shelves. They just caught my eye as I drank some […]

So many things have happened since I last wrote nearly two years ago – where do I begin? Things are always in a process of change, but this is more true of some periods of our lives than others. Running a temple, we have discovered, involves a rather steep learning curve! Life is good here […]