It often comes as a great surprise to realise just how important something minor is in our lives, be it a toe, a finger or, as in your case, an arm. To suddenly have it damaged, or taken completely out of service, at short notice throws us a great deal, as we try to adapt…

For many, when they believe themselves to be a death’s door, a consideration of what comes, and what has been, is their priority no matter how they have lived their lives, no matter what they might believe in. I’m not sure whether this is the normal state of affairs, whether it effects everyone across the…

Things are rarely what they seem to be on the surface: we project our own thoughts and desires onto what we see, what we hear, and try to fit the few facts or pieces of information we’ve received into our own scheme of things, rather than looking further, rather than trying to see things from…

There are times when we simply have to accept what has happened, shrug off the good or the bad feelings, and move on with our lives. Other times when we should simply take a step back, collect our thoughts and emotions, and consider what is happening: whether it is too fast; whether it is meaningful;…

There is a certain level of intimacy in everything we do, everything that we share with other people, every time we turn our thoughts or our gaze to another person. This intimacy has nothing to do with sexual attraction, with romantic, with a move in one or another direction, but all to do with a…

If I were to write about everything that has happened in my small corner of the world since we last exchanged letters, I would probably need a few more sheets of paper than are likely to fit inside a normal envelope. It’s not that I have been exceptionally busy, although I have been out and…

The Europeans, and especially the British, have been waiting upon and fearing the so-called Beast From The East, which was due to hit the islands and then the mainland a while ago and, due to form did, with all the feared bad weather such a Beast brings. This is the first time I have heard…

There are strange connections throughout life which bring various and varied people together in ways beyond our understanding. Where one is giving thought to a specific action, another could be reading a work which covers this action, or something akin to it, and pondering much the same thing, but from a different viewpoint, from a…

I recently read an article, from the United States, that lamented the changes in our system of education, whereby a child is no longer taught how to hold and use a pen, and hand writing is gradually becoming a thing of the past. As more and more technology infiltrates our lives and exerts its ease…