I didn’t catch your namesaid my friend the nurseto the doctor, who hadn’toffered a name or smile feverish, full of infectionnot making sense of muchstill upright, I felt a bother, assumingI wasn’t sick enough to be there hospitals, said Thomas…
Category: Mortality
sick, flat on my backstaring at the ceilingReality wanted a saywondering, raw as alwaysif this was how I would dieno cat, dog, human or fish beside me why should that be a problem? I askednot to me dear, she saidpositively…
The funeral had been everything hoped for, and more. The person honoured; hospitality shown. Words and music flowed. The one technical hitch wasn’t worth worrying about. But I felt done in. Ready to drop them from my repertoire. After 20…
Kali the Labrador came into my life when she was ten months old. Appealing, exuberant, and unruly. We developed an inexplicable bond, living in silence but inter-dependent. When she left me nine years later, I felt untethered, adrift, grief stricken.…
Racing into my Sunday morning dance exercise class my head was focused on the death of Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Competing for space was the news that Biden was now President of the United States and Aotearoa has sworn in…
On resurrection morning, Kate glanced at the crumpled grave clothes and cautiously opened the door of her tomb. The sun shone; new life beckoned but did she have what it took? The descent to the tomb began on the Ides…
Kali the Labrador, my closest living being, is in COVID19 lockdown with me. She’s the leader here because, like her wolf ancestors, she lives out of instinct, attuned to unseen forces and energies. But if I pay attention, she gives…
‘What have you done while Australia burns?’ yelled teen activist Izzy Raj-Seppings. ‘What have you done while your people can’t breathe,’ she continued, well wound up in front of thousands of Sydneysiders protesting climate change and wanting rid of their…
The movie Marianne and Leonard: Words of Love drew me in, twice. An engrossing but discomforting movie that highlights Cohen’s hurtful behaviour towards his muse and lover, Marianne Ihlen and her apparent willingness to be walked over like a beautiful…
I wrote this prayer, or cry of the human heart, for an interfaith gathering at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Palmerston North and the MidCentral DHB vigil. Chant, sing or say it with great passion! O God of…