We often understand the depth of a gift long after the moment when we could have thanked the giver. I’ve heard it said that the soul of a country lives in its music. Yesterday, as I looked through old photographs, lost in thought, while Peter played Finnish folk songs at the piano, I felt how…
What a Legacy
We cannot decide how many years our story will contain, but we can choose what we write into the years we are given. This weekend, as we celebrate fathers here in Australia, I find myself looking into the eyes of a man I never had the privilege of meeting. My paternal grandfather looks back at…
Through Every Season
We cannot expect our younger selves to have understood what only a lifetime of experience could teach us. I have often heard it said that the year before a major milestone becomes a reflective one. A year of looking backwards as much as forwards. Of taking stock. Of remembering who you were, who you became,…
Wrapped in Wonder
Perhaps one of the loveliest things about genuine happiness is that it makes us want others to experience it too. A few weeks ago, Peter and I stepped out of the crisp Southern Highlands cold and into the historic Robertson Hotel, a place filled with grand Gatsby-era elegance. What waited inside made me stop and…
Hidden Nests
Perhaps the quieter seasons of life reveal things that its busiest seasons never allowed us to see. When I walk my neighbourhood in midwinter, I notice how the season has stripped so many of the trees bare. The leaves are gone now, revealing what had been hidden all along: abandoned bird nests sitting quietly among…
The Long Goodbye
Sometimes the hardest part of caring for someone is accepting that we cannot make them better, while recognising that we can still make a difference in their days. There is a grief that comes with watching a parent fade that is almost impossible to explain unless you have lived it. It is the grief of…
Never Abandoned
Our vulnerability does not diminish our faith; it reminds us how deeply we need God. Five years ago today, I received news that changed my life. But two days before that, on an ordinary Monday morning, my body gave me the first terrifying sign that something was terribly wrong. Nothing about the morning itself felt…
More Myself
Perhaps growing older is not so much about becoming someone different, but about rediscovering who we have always been. I used to think growing older meant moving further away from the girl I once was, but in many ways it has brought me back to her. Getting older has not made me less myself, but…
Books and Roses
Perhaps the most meaningful way to challenge expectations is not through rebellion, but through the quiet confidence of being ourselves. My two grandfathers were not exactly what you would call traditional men, even though both were born in the early 1900s. My father’s father loved cooking, baking, and cleaning. Domestic work came naturally to him….
More ordinary days
Sometimes the greatest relief comes not from having all our questions answered, but from being given a little more room to breathe. There are weeks when the whole world feels unsteady. This has been one of them. So much in the wider world feels fragile at the moment, with economies shaking, nations on edge, and…
