Thin Places by Kerri nÍ Dochartaigh
Here is a story of darkness which holds a web of cracks that light their way through. You may envision Leonard Cohen singing this clearly in ‘Anthem’, or picture a Japanese vase held together by golden threads of glue or you may say it belongs to Kerri NÍ Docharteigh’s Thin Places and it is not a story, it is her life. What permeates through this life of political division, of broken people, of death and hatred, is that of nature. The beautiful and the sublime- the sublime which holds danger in its palm of beauty with all of its wildness
The Best Most Awful Job: Twenty Writers Talk Honestly About Motherhood
The Best Most Awful Job: Twenty Writers Talk Honestly About Motherhood Edited by Katherine May A note to the reader. I read this book and wrote this piece before the world entered a new age and way of life. Before the word pandemic reached our ears and most of the problems were far away enough not to worry. But here we are, separated from our older parents; grandparents, immunity compromised friends and loved ones and now without school, a great weight has been placed on us for how long we do not know. If you are a mother whether you
Wintering : How I Learned to Flourish When Life Became Frozen by Katherine May
Book Review Wintering : How I Learned to Flourish When Life Became Frozen by Katherine May Losing hope and entering a well of darkness is an emotion that is common to all of us. It is not something we experience once or twice but on numerous occasions throughout our lives. For some the depth of despair is deeper than it is for others. The frequency too varies but it exists and is mostly unavoidable; this is the human condition and in a way can hold the function of righting a wrong. This is what May calls “wintering.” Our complexity knows
Wild Woman Swimming A Journal Of West Country Swimming
Wild Woman Swimming A Journal of West Country Waters by Lynne Roper Tanya Shadrick a former hospice scribe made a promise to Lynne Roper after a single meeting which was to published Roper’s wild swim diaries upon her death. The diaries cover the time between her survival of breast cancer and her death from a brain tumour. This however is not a book about death. This is a book about life; it is about taking note of its beauty, its sublime and the people one encounters on a daily exploration through water. Roper’s wit, sarcasm and humour pull you along
INTERVIEW -EVERYDAY CREATIVITY: FINDING THE RIGHT SPACE TO WRITE
Could you complete the following: I write because… The urge has always been strong. As a child, I would staple pieces of paper together to form a book and fill it with childish scrawls. I couldn’t write yet but I sensed a kind of magic when pen met paper and felt fulfilled in doing so as my mind was always buzzing with stories. Not long after, those pages began to be filled with actual words in the guise of fairy tales. They were usually stories of witches laying curses upon villages; I don’t remember what was being read to
EMBRACING MOLASSES
My mind is buzzing with ideas. It’s not constant but when ideas for writing arrive they bombard my mind, flood me and overwhelm. It’s as though I’ve been buzzing along on a specific frequency and suddenly start feeling a shift, like short wave to long. So I’m going to just go ahead and start writing before the radio/ transmitter I obviously have in my head starts doing strange things and I forget to write at all. There have been posts that I had planned on thumping out on the computer and for whatever reason or the other; my fingers
Reading, Listening, Yearning
Finding energy lately has been pretty hard, a lot of it was spent on worry, looking after children and hoping and dreaming on a new home outside of London. I’ve managed to catch up on some reading, zilch writing but dreaming even if it’s all so fuzzy. I still manage to do it albeit tinted with much frustration and anxiety. It does seem to take me a long time to do anything, it took me over a month to answer a list of questions a fellow writer sent me on motherhood and creativity but I eventually managed it. It
BIRTHING LITERATURE : HOW TO GROW A BABY AND PUSH IT OUT BY CLEMMIE HOOPER
Once you overcome the initial shock of finding out you are pregnant whether planned or not, there is much excitement. Intermingling with this excitement soon after is anxiety and fear. There is worry over whether you will hear that heartbeat at each scan, whether your baby has formed healthily and then the worry over what kind of parent you will be. Whether you will be able to cope with one of the biggest changes in your life whilst envisaging the magnitude of the responsibility ahead. For most even through the all day nausea; heartburn, sciatica, carpel tunnel syndrome (yes, I
HAPPY BRAVE NEW YEAR
Happy new year! I hope this irregularly mild holiday season was met with family warmth and laughter that has kept your inner fires warm enough to get you through these ice laced mornings and evenings. I don’t write resolutions as mentioned before but I have picked a word to loom over me, it is BRAVE. I endeavour to be braver in everything I pursue, be it hunting for a home and delving deeper into work like a bear nuzzling into a cave but that’s not the right analogy as that doesn’t sound brave but cosy. So maybe what I should
THE LONELY CITY: ADVENTURES IN THE ART OF BEING ALONE BY OLIVIA LAING
My three year old mentioned loneliness the other day. It wasn’t the first time she had uttered the word. At first, like most parents my reaction was one of concern. As though something painful, damaging and everlasting may be occurring in her soul. Because like everybody else I know how painful loneliness can be. It’s like being eternally cold on the inside, like a solitary iceberg chipped away and floating away from its family island. My first response was of course to console her and shower her in attention, even organise a friend to meet up with. Anything to fill
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