Hi Reader Last Sunday, my friend Suzi and I found ourselves standing in a narrow cobbled street in the little Portuguese village of Alpedrinha, with sheep and goats streaming past us just inches from our legs. Some of them had VERY large horns. This was Chocalhos, a festival celebrating the ancient tradition of 'transhumance' (totally new word to me) - which means the seasonal movement of livestock from one grazing area to another. For generations, shepherds in this part of Portugal moved...
28 days agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
Hi Reader It's been another week of waiting for test results in our house. Thankfully, Phil is making steady progress following his eye surgery. But just as things began to settle down with him, our 12-year-old Bichon Frise, Joey, became unwell. He stopped eating, was barely drinking and couldn't keep anything down. Joey has had some liver problems for the past couple of years, so inevitably our minds began going to the place we didn't want them to go. Was this the beginning of the end? We...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 3 min read
Hi Reader Phil and I are very different people. We often joke that if we'd met on a dating site, there's not a chance in a million years any algorithm would have put us together! One of our differences is the way our brains work. I tend to focus on one thing at a time. If I'm concentrating, I don't want the television on, music playing or somebody trying to have a completely unrelated conversation with me. Phil, on the other hand, seems perfectly capable of watching television, playing a game...
2 months agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
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Sunday Reflection but would like to keep receiving the emails you initially signed up for, CLICK HERE to opt out of the Sunday Reflection email. Hi Reader Someone said something to me this week that gave me a bit of a shock. We were chatting in one of the community groups we lead when one person said to me, "I remember you saying that when I first knew you 30 years ago." My immediate thought was: "You didn't know me when I was a little girl!" And then I did...
3 months agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
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Sunday Reflection but would like to keep receiving the emails you initially signed up for, CLICK HERE to opt out of the Sunday Reflection email. Hi Reader We've been watching The Bear recently. If you haven't seen it, it's a gritty drama set in a restaurant in Chicago. But underneath, it's really about grief, family, perfectionism, trauma, ambition, anxiety, uncertainty and relationships between people. It's brilliantly acted, but one thing has really stood...
3 months agoΒ β’Β 1 min read
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Sunday Reflection but would like to keep receiving the emails you initially signed up for, CLICK HERE to opt out of the Sunday Reflection email. Hi Reader Tonight (it's Friday as I write), I'll be sleeping at the airport. Not in an airport hotel - actually in the airport! Whenever I have an early morning flight back to Portugal, I head to the airport late the night before. The alternatives are either leaving around 2am to get public transport to the airport...
3 months agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
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Sunday Reflection but would like to keep receiving the emails you initially signed up for, CLICK HERE to opt out of the Sunday Reflection email. Hi Reader If youβd told me seven years ago that this would happen, Iβm not sure I would have believed you. This week, Iβve been invited to join Mike Dooley (the New York Times best-selling author of 'Infinite Possibilities' and featured teacher in 'The Secret') - on a live panel with three other people, sharing our...
4 months agoΒ β’Β 3 min read
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Sunday Reflection but would like to keep receiving the emails you initially signed up for, CLICK HERE to opt out of the Sunday Reflection email. Hi Reader This week my friend Luz Elena said something that's been going round and round in my mind. She said: "It's really important to mark the moment." The comment came during one of our 'I Believe in Me!' training sessions as we were talking about the importance of endings and celebrations for children. Luz...
4 months agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
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Sunday Reflection but would like to keep receiving the emails you initially signed up for, CLICK HERE to opt out of the Sunday Reflection email. Hi Reader This week we decided to take the back road. We were driving to meet our friend Suzi in a local cafe, which is only about a ten-minute journey, but instead of taking the usual route, we chose the more scenic one along a single track winding road. Itβs one of those roads that reminds me why we love living...
4 months agoΒ β’Β 2 min read