Paul Kelly and the lighthouse in the sky
At a gathering recently I heard a rendition of Paul Kelly’s song “Meet Me In The Middle Of The Air”.
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 …
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.
Accompanying – a new story in Eureka Street
I wrote this piece after hearing Leigh Sales interviewed at Adelaide Writers Week last month. I loved her book, ‘Any Ordinary Day’ and was captured again by the way she spoke it. Most of all the surprising impact a Jesuit priest called Steve Sinn had on her understanding of the task of ‘accompanying’. Sales had …
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 …
The funeral and the lion suit onesie
In September 2017, The Big Issue published this story in their My Word section issue # 545. Because they rely on their vendors selling hard copies (and I admire their plan) they ask writers not to put their work up on line at the time of publication. Here it is now, for your enjoyment. When …
Knowing by heart
The part of the mind that once held poems is now used for storing passwords. The part of the mind that once remembered songs is now used for storing pin numbers… Knowing things by heart is definitely old school. As noted above by cartoonist and writer Michael Leunig. We have so many devices now for …