My inadvertent love affair with wonky pets began with my first dog, Toby, a collie cross rescue who was only six months old but already had a pin in his leg, as a result of being hit by a car. I’d just moved into my first house and I wanted a dog. Nothing fancy, just […]
Read More“Forex trading may make you rich if you are a hedge fund with deep pockets or an unusually skilled currency trader. But for the average retail trader, rather than being an easy road to riches, forex trading can be a rocky highway to enormous losses and potential penury.” – Investopedia. On our morning walk, as […]
Read MoreTwo disparate events moved me to write this week about the drawbacks of stoicism. First, I completed a round-trip of some 15 hours duration to have Daisy’s (my dog) lameness properly diagnosed by a specialist vet who, rather inconveniently, lives in another country. It turns out that she’s been hiding multiple significant musculoskeletal issues (stoically) […]
Read MoreIn therapy, I am looking out of the window at the gravestones. I didn’t deliberately choose a therapist whose office was in a cemetery but now that I think about it, there is something peaceful and fitting about talking of the past surrounded by the dead. Our conversation is about the need to please my […]
Read MoreThe Sunday I watched my father zipped into a body bag and removed from the living room didn’t seem an obvious point at which there would be a change in the relationship I’d witnessed him have with my mother. That morning, he would have been listening to Brahms or Beethoven, maybe Grieg and watching the […]
Read MoreA number of things have converged this week causing me to think about how we connect to others and, more specifically, the role that agreeableness plays in doing so. The first was a message from my daughter telling me that she’d split up with her boyfriend. They’ve been trying to address their differences for a […]
Read MoreOn the train, we sit separately because so many people are travelling. From where I am I can look up the carriage towards Martin facing me. He holds up his phone and takes a picture of my withering expression. In these moments I think about how different it could have been had he not stopped […]
Read MoreI wrote this piece some years ago but never posted it. I’m not sure why. I came across it this week when I was looking for a systemic family therapist and realised how hard it is to find good therapists with availability. I’m about to do some further training and need to be in therapy […]
Read MoreMy sister texts me with the news that our brother has returned from ten days in Yorkshire to find that his water tank has been leaking and made the house uninhabitable. The insurance company say it will be a year before he is back home. The last time I saw my brother was when I […]
Read MoreI’ve spent much of the past week lying in a hammock reading books being gently caressed by a soft breeze floating in from the river Alde, while thinking about vulnerability and regret. Holidays are, for most of you, I know, a source of great excitement and pleasure, but I don’t really feel that way about […]
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