‘Tender’ review
Tender is the perfect title for this book. Each story is exquisite in its gentle weaving of incidents witnessed with a call to compassion and justice.
Gleaning, a lesson at the margins
In the Sunday Age essay today, do check out the links as well! When the news broke of the latest push by the Federal Government to drug test people on Newstart, a neighbour sent me a link to comedian Sammy J posing as a Canberra-based urine-collector––“taking the piss”. It was great for a laugh but …
Not just a boy from the bush
https://crosslight.org.au/2019/08/23/wesley-trigg-not-just-a-boy-from-the-bush/published in Crosslight magazine Wesley Trigg and his wife Una are waiting in the foyer at Carnsworth Uniting Agewell in the Melbourne suburb of Kew. I recognise their signature neatness and punctuality. The retired minister and teacher are both in their nineties. We have previously been members of the same congregation. Amongst that casual throng …
Jack baptises himself
this story is in Eureka Street, religion section, photograph by Eva Rugel The first time Jack came to church he baptised himself. The font was new, the water inviting, and he dunked his 10-year-old head right in. The sea-blue glass font had recently been installed in the foyer on a sculpted piece of redgum. The …
Leaving space to find meaning
When you’ve listened to a story with anticipation, there’s a kind of deflation if you’re told what to think about it.
It’s here! Tender, stories that lean into kindness
‘Tender’ brings together 60 stories Julie Perrin has written in one lovely-to-hold-in-your-hand book.
Pádraig Ó Tuama On Being podcast
I’m so delighted to know this wonderful human, pictured here at a house concert early this year. You can listen Pádraig here on the On Being podcast. In a few weeks he will be in Melbourne again, at Sacred Edge in Queenscliff May 3-5, doing storytelling seminar and workshop at the Centre for Theology and …
writing collects – a prayer, a plea
A couple of weeks ago I attended a workshop with my poet friend, Pádraig O Tuama. He taught the practice of writing ‘collects’ – a kind of prayer. I have just been reading ‘Flight Ways, Life and Loss at the Edge of Extinction’ by Thom van Dooren. The grief of it is with me still. …
