Stay away from pretty gardens
Stay away from pretty gardens DM 18th October 2025 C S Lewis would have to be the most quoted Christian author I have ever encountered, and it always seems advantageous to mention his name to strengthen one’s point. The man was incredibly insightful, honest, and articulate. His book The Four Loves contains a strange but […]
Mulberry Prayers
Mulberry prayers DM 11th October 2025 I do love mulberries. Particularly enclosed in warm pastry and served with ice-cream. There’s luscious tree in a suburb near where I work, and when it’s dripping with fruit, I’m tempted to action that sentence where Jesus said: “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you […]
Seeing double
Seeing double DM 4th October 2025 Twins come in two varieties: identical and fraternal. Some might put the distinction another way: annoying and really-annoying! Think of Lewis Caroll’s Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and J K Rowling’s George and Fred Weasley. (Actually there’s a third kind of twins – cojoined – which I guess lies more on […]
The Healing of Regrets
The Healing of Regrets DM 27th September 2025 Tolkien wrote some wonderful books. The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit must take first and second place. But vying for third is surely his short work called Leaf: By Niggle, about a very ordinary man, an artist, called Niggle, whose life is full of procrastinations, […]
The First Sip
The First Sip DM 20th September 2025 My wife and I were sipping on our coffees on our day off, when her first sip drew the crème-art into a different configuration. She wondered aloud if a barista could achieve the skill of pouring the milk, but in such a way that the real picture is […]
Recitations
Recitations DM 13th September 2025 It was a regular Friday night ritual, that I loved and loathed. My grandparents would arrive, armed with sweets and treats. But not to be given to hungry children for free. To get them, you either had to recite some poetry, or read a page from a book, or sing […]
Finishing Unwell
Finishing Unwell (Encouragement to the dying) DM 6th September 2025 The quay was awash with them. Lithe and impressive-looking people, smiling and warmly gabbling in different tongues, and sporting silver medals around their necks. These were the athletes who the previous day had completed the Sydney marathon, and were now proudly wearing their spoils of […]
Perfect freedom
Perfect freedom DM 30th August 2025 There’s an interesting verse in the final Book of the Bible on the topic of heaven. In speaking about the city to come, it says, “On no day will its gates ever be shut”, with this reason attached, “for there will be no night there.” I’m not sure that […]
Faint praise
Faint praise DM 23rd August 2025 I knew that the smallest bone in the human body was located in the ear. In high-school biology, we called it the stirrup, but its anatomical name is stapes. And I knew that it was a clever bone, and critical to the function of hearing. But I’d never heard […]
The Wigtown Whistler
The Wigtown Whistler DM 16th August 2025 In a diary by the proprietor of The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland, irritating patrons are named and shamed, and I have just been convicted for the innocent crime of whistling. “Sadly this type… is a man (it is always a man) who is so blissfully ignorant of the […]