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”.
Mark Tredinnick
Mark’s poetry and lyrical prose return to mind so often. I am grateful for the long conversations we have had that formed this interview published by Dumbo Feather I first met Mark Tredinnick’s work through The Little Red Writing Book––recommended by a teacher I loved. Within the opening pages I was hooked. I read the …
Face to face with a loss of trust
essay published in The Sunday Age Jean is 90. She is widowed and lives alone in an outer suburb of Melbourne. Her small brick house overlooks a terraced garden with a view of the Dandenongs. Jean used to be a florist and now she cooks, tends the garden and takes care of herself. Jean’s daughter …
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 …
the small man and the round woman
Glad to see this story published this week in the Sunday Age faith column August 4, 2019 He is a man fully present to himself. In the botanical gardens he wears a neat close-brimmed hat and weaves through the crowd following a child. Deftly he catches her up, bringing her back into the gathering for the …
Conversations in conflicted times
“Probably people know the room is going to be discussing something of division. Presumably people have a predictable set of outcomes in their mind. “I bet you this group or this person will say the following thing.” And they might even have their responses primed and prepared for the thing that they’re predicting. I’m always interested in how we find the courage in the room for something unexpected and surprising to be said.” Pádraig Ó Tuama
Tender is launched!
Hard to believe the launch of Tender was just over a week ago. A joy to have poet and peace maker Pádraig Ó Tuama in the room with his beautiful lilting voice and delicious humour. Thanks to the 120 people who came and listened with lovely presentness, the atmosphere was memorable. People also purchased with …
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.
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 …