“Remember, the time of year when the future appears, like a blank sheet of paper, a clean calendar, a new chance. On thick white snow, you vow fresh footprints, then watch them go, with the wind’s hearty gust. Fill your glass. Here’s tae us. Promises made to be broken, made to last.”

Jackie Kay

“In our post-truth culture our stories are the most powerful way to communicate.”

 Leslie Leyland Fields

“If every single person who has liked you in your lifetime, were to light up on a map, it would create the most glitteringly beautiful network you could imagine... You’re trailing a bright pathway that you don’t even know about.  What a thing.  What a thing indeed.”

Donna Ashworth.

“One day the mountain that is in front of you will be so far behind you, it will barely be visible in the distance.  But the person you become in learning to get over it?  That will stay with you forever.  And that is the point of the mountain.” 

Brianna Wiest

Sometimes I mentally punish myself for unproductive days, but then I remind myself breaks are necessary. Don't feel guilty for putting something on pause temporarily while you reconnect with yourself to find balance. Remember, your health and family come first.

Megann Roxanne

There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done. Nothing you can make that can’t be made. No-one you can save that can’t be saved. Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time. It’s easy.”

John Lennon

“You can do it like it’s a great weight on you, or you can do it like it’s part of the dance.”

Ram Dass

(Marlborough, NZ)

The whisper of dawn, when the house is still in slumber, allowing you to savour the stillness or enjoy a cup of coffee before the day begins.

(Ubud, Bali)

“It is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in this broken world.” Mary Oliver

(Venice, Italy)

How to shop with a bookworm: enter store; keep eyes on your bookworm at all times; wow ok you lost them; they’re gone forever now.

Hillbillies Bookshop, Gairloch

“Seeding beautiful words is an act of radical hope that words make worlds.” Sue Heatherington

“As the creator of the next 365 days, may you fill your canvas with a painting of goodness and whatever fills your heart’s deepest wishes.”

Today I found a poem that gave me a different perspective on this season of my life, and I find myself giving way to the new season of advent…

I am thinking again about climbing mountains. I have been learning over the last two months that it can also be fearful looking down to where you began when something unexpected has happened…

And so, a month later, I am thinking about climbing mountains. It is a wonderful feeling to look down to where you began; it can be fearful looking up towards where you dream of going…

This was the photo I shared with all of my Playcentres as we settled into the first lockdown and grew used to connecting online…

Every story has a beginning. A point before which you had forgotten that you ever had a dream, and you were happy. A point after which you find you are following a whole new path, hopes and dreams shine bright and things will never be the same again…