Thanks for dropping by. I'm a author and teacher with interests in education, mental health. faith and community. I like to wonder aloud about everyday life, hope and the silly, incongruous things that shape us and make us who we are. I also like hats, cake and those tiny little snores cats make when they sleep. On the Home page, you'll find around 100 wonderings, all different in length and content. On a pc, you'll see a 'Select month' menu at the side where you can choose a piece from the last 12 years. You can find out about my books on the Books tab. Miracle! I'd love to hear your comments below any posts you read. Have a good day. Deborah
Welcome to the incomparable Fran Hill, who is an old friend, fellow writer. and a blogger whose site I visit again and again when I need a laugh or another way of looking at life. Or both. If you enjoy her musings (below) you'd really enjoy having a click-around on her site, Being Me, at … Continue reading Eyebrows
When it was all over, she resigned her job, packed a case and flew to Montpellier. It was strange really. While it was all unravelling – thirty years of careful working life – she knew, at the end of it, she would need to go away for a bit. But where? Night after night, stiff … Continue reading The Olive Tree
The international happiness expert (yes, there is one), Paul Dolan, was on Radio 4 this morning. He says true happiness is finding the balance between things we find pleasurable and things we find purposeful. He cited having children as an example, saying that according to all the happiness data, we shouldn’t bother. At best they … Continue reading Habits of Delight and the Myth of Joyful Parenting?
I’m shopping in that vague way where you can’t actually remember what you want to buy. And all that’s keeping you is the £2.90 bus fare which you now wish you’d spent on a Kindle Single or a bar of Green and Black’s chocolate to be eaten, slowly, while reading the paper or someone’s blog … Continue reading In Praise of Useful Things?
When I was a little girl, my dad used to line up all the family’s shoes on a Sunday night and clean them. So I had never cleaned a shoe in my life. In fact I didn’t even know where the shoe cleaning stuff was kept or where to buy it. My father just produced … Continue reading Shoes and Other Taboos
I sometimes wish I was the kind of person who could look at something and say “That’s interesting,” and move on. You know, have a cup of tea and think about the garden or something. Or think about nothing. I know people who can do that (Or at least when I say to them, “What … Continue reading My Brain, Summer and the Wives of Henry VIII
The old man leans on the gate at the edge of the park. It is heavier than he remembers but then so are most things. Like his own stomach and the bag of weekly shopping. He sighs. If only he had taken better care of himself when the whole damn thing had started – the … Continue reading Waiting for Grandad
Have you heard the definition of English hospitality? According to a peculiarly honest American who once stayed with us, it’s - Making people feel at home when you wish they were. It made us laugh, then it made us think. Then we wondered if he was trying to tell us something… I would defy that … Continue reading Retreat, Reuse, Recycle
I hate closing doors – on the house, the classroom, the car - there’s always a tiny stab of panic just before the lip of the door hits the jamb. Sometimes I have to go back and check things – the oven, heater, brake. I don’t quite know why. Call me O.C.D. but I suppose … Continue reading Hunting for Small and other Sacred Pathways
What do you do on a thin day in winter when you’re not at work, your To Do List is vile and the air outside beckons with cut glass finger? You go out of course, with your husband or your friend, to Richmond Park. You worry you’ll regret this later because there are decisions and … Continue reading Moles and Glimpses of Things
stillwonderinghere 