It’s been on my radar screen for a while to take the children to the zoo. Something of a tradition at this time of year, I’d been waiting for a free day. Tuesday this week was the day I’d earmarked,
Welcome to the Yogapocalypse: the joy of being
About two weeks ago I coined the term “Yogapocalypse.” It had been such a lovely evening: one of those sunny, quiet nights when the blackbirds’ throats are swollen with song, the grasses sway like an ebbing tide and jasmine wantonly
Secret pain, compassion & connection
I saw a friend this week who has had a particularly difficult five or six years, struggling with mental health challenges, the dissolution of her marriage, and the subsequent fight for access to her children. Of course, if you’d been
The Lies We Tell
On Friday morning last week, one of my children came downstairs with blue teeth. I didn’t notice but the other children clocked it in a second. “Why do you have blue teeth?” one sibling asked. “Oh, maybe because I was
The Sky’s the Limit: getting through challenging parenting moments
Over the weekend, a friend asked me what my children’s ethnic heritage is. (Answer: complicated.) When I mentioned this conversation to my six year old son, he soberly answered, “Human.” We nodded at his sagacity, but he very quickly followed
Baby seagulls and other annoyances: watching those thoughts
Every time I unfurl my Yoga mat or try to sit in quiet meditation it’s the same thing: cra cra cra cra craaaaaaa! While we were away on holiday, the seagulls that nest nearby welcomed a new baby. That baby
Bopping to your own beat: parenting without comparison
“Wait. Am I even facing the right way now?” One of my Yoga students this week caught my eye and looked uncertain. Looking around the class, she could see that everyone else was doing something different from her, and she
You’ve got to get your eye in
Regular readers and Twitter followers will be well aware of my youngest child’s love affair with things that crawl. He is particularly enamoured of insects, but he simply needs to be outdoors, so he’s happy to watch birds, hunt for
Worth it
“Why isn’t anybody listening to me?” Sometimes I mutter these words under my breath through clenched teeth. Sometimes I shout them above the noise of two recorders, a yelling five year old and the blasting radio. (The recorders were a
Seeing and being seen
Shortly after I had my first baby a friend from work visited me. She spent plenty of time cooing over the new baby, but she got right to the heart of the matter when she asked, “So, how’s it going?
