Spending time with children can help us see the world with fresh wonder. The night couldn’t be more perfect for a stroll along the beach. The breeze is gentle, and the sea mirrors its stillness. I inhale deeply, letting the scents of the evening fill my senses, the salty mist in the air, the refreshing…
Cancer Diagnosis
A date that once marked our deepest fear can become a day to honour the life we have lived since. I’m the kind of person who remembers anniversaries, not only the joyful ones, but the ones that mark life’s deep turning points. I’ve always been this way. Certain days settle into my bones and refuse…
This World Needs Christmas
Goodwill can begin with one person willing to reach across a divide. There are some stories that don’t fade with time. They settle into the soul and stay there. One of them is the Christmas of 1914. I often try to picture it. Young men far from home, shivering in muddy trenches along the Western…
Christmas Wish
Sometimes we only recognise how much we have when we hear how little someone else has. Sometimes life has a way of stopping us in our tracks, quietly urging us to reflect. It’s so easy to get swept up in the holiday buzz, the endless plans, the lists, the preparations. This year my Christmas tree…
Tender Beginnings
Perhaps one of the greatest privileges of growing older is being given the opportunity to watch another generation grow, discover and find its place in the world. Although the day might have seemed like just another day, to me it felt like the world had paused for a moment, holding its breath for something extraordinary….
Everyday Joys
What we look forward to, experience and remember can each bring their own kind of joy. What makes me smile? It’s not only the grand occasions. It’s the small things, the fleeting, almost hidden moments that could so easily be missed in the rush of daily life. Simple things. Quiet things. Yet rich with warmth….
Grandfather Clock
What lasts across generations often does so because someone chooses to care for it, then places it in the hands of someone new. There is a particular kind of solace that lives in my family’s old grandfather clock. It hangs on the wall downstairs, keeping time with its steady, gentle tick-tock. On days when life…
Hurricane Milton
Compassion begins when another person’s suffering matters to us. As I sit on a park bench in my local park in Melbourne, the sun rests warmly on my shoulders, and everything feels calm. The sky stretches above me in a wide, endless blue. Birds sing from the treetops, and nearby I hear the bright, carefree…
Family Recipes
We honour what has been passed down to us by making it part of how we live and care for others today. Food has a way of carrying us home. For me, that home begins in a sunlit kitchen where the scent of fresh bread mingled with simmering soup, wrapping itself around everything like a…
Fleeting Moments
There is a time to hold on and a time to let go, and that time will not be the same for everyone. I think I notice autumn first in the light. It falls across the garden differently. The afternoon sun sits lower, finding its way through the branches and catching leaves that were green…
