Coming Up For Air – 5 Tips For Deeper Breathing This Summer

Plumbing the Depths Like 007

Daniel Craig as James Bond and Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt are two of my favourite action movie characters. (Matt Damon as Jason Bourne is my other, btw). In both Casino Royale and in the latest Mission Impossible film Rogue Nation, there are two drowning scenes that are full-on awful to watch because they’re so brilliantly realistic in portraying the horrifying moment when drowning becomes an inevitability for Vesper and Ethan when they begin to inhale water.Continue reading “Coming Up For Air – 5 Tips For Deeper Breathing This Summer”

A Normal Oblivion

Bed-side

Imagine being woken up tomorrow morning by voices in your head, or voices that you thought were in your head. Imagine groggily coming round, sick in your stomach, disoriented by fear because of the sonic traffic that the voices in your head were creating: unfamiliar tones, unrecognisable expressions – a mystifying medley of unearthly voice. Imagine waking tomorrow morning to experience something akin to a dream and yet that was not a dream; something understandable and yet utterly bewildering.

You would be afraid.Continue reading “A Normal Oblivion”

We Are Not Our Failures

You may be reading this post very aware that you have just failed again, especially with something that you’re trying to beat because you can see that it’s having a negative impact on your life and on the lives of others.

You’re travelling at speed. Your heart is like a set of bicycle wheels. Continue reading “We Are Not Our Failures”

Observe the Potter

I read something this morning that I was blessed by & ordinarily I’d have tucked the accompanying thought away but felt I needed to write an impromptu post instead – I trust this will encourage some of you.Continue reading “Observe the Potter”

Give Yourself Pause

“To share, or not to share: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To like: to not like…”

______

This featured image captures the story of a generation: an obsession with sharing information and, sadly, evaluating its worth based on the response of public opinion.

Millennails, Gen-Xers, Boomers – we all do it.

Of course, this is only one side of the coin because the 21st Century’s propensity towards sharing digital data is also a significant strength!Continue reading “Give Yourself Pause”

The Valley of Achor

‘…thus says the Lord, God of Israel, ‘There are devoted things in your midst O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.’

(Joshua 7:13)

It can be painfully frustrating to read through the accounts of the people of Israel. They seem to make the most obvious mistakes and at times have total disregard for the miraculous events that take place in their midst. Reading Joshua chapter 7 felt like one of these frustrating chapters to begin with but as the narrative began to unfold it suddenly felt significant and then incredibly relevant. It will never cease to amaze me how God does this time and time again through scripture.Continue reading “The Valley of Achor”

Dependence

Did you know that it’s possible to be addicted to exercise? In fact, exercise dependence is widely recognised as a form of compulsive behavioural addiction – a psychological state that is damaging to physical, mental and social health.

The basic principle of establishing whether you’re addicted to exercise, or not, (or to what extent), is to answer a series of questions which pumps out an overall score of your psycological state.

*Google: exercise dependence and HAD test.

Continue reading “Dependence”

Augustine 

I was astonished that although I now loved you…I did not persist in enjoyment of my God. Your beauty drew me to you, but soon I was dragged away from you by my own weight and in dismay I plunged again into the things of this world…as though I had sensed the fragrance of the fare but was not yet able to eat it.

How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose…! You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place, you who are sweeter than all pleasure, though not to flesh and blood, you who outshine all light, yet are hidden deeper than any secret in our hearts, you who surpass all honour, though not in the eyes of men who see all honour in themselves…O Lord my God, my Light, my Wealth, and my Salvation.

Augustine, Confessions 

The Mystery of the Spectacular Ordinary 

For several years I have been struggling to forgive a very serious series of incidents that have had a major impact on my heart and mind as well as Mairi’s. Detail is unnecessary. But, suffice to say, I have been wrestling with the cognitive wisdom of ‘knowing’ that forgiveness was needed, for my own sake, but not quite knowing how to get my heart there.Continue reading “The Mystery of the Spectacular Ordinary “