Everyone carries secrets. Not necessarily the kind that titillate, but the ordinary, everyday ones that rise to trouble us like a recurring virus. The pain of regret, of knowing that our lives are not perfect, not even close but sometimes…
Category: Spirituality in Health
The moment arrived. I opened the New Zealand Census webpage, filled in my code and with one click of the mouse became a No Religion, one of the fastest growing groups in our community. To be honest, I didn’t feel that…
New Zealand is currently considering David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill through the Justice Select Committee process. My submission is below in its entirety. Support for the Bill I support the intent of this Bill because it emerges from…
Kiwis are losing their in record numbers but they’re leaning into life in diverse ways, which would make complete sense to the late theologian James Fowler. After interviewing nearly 600 people, not a bad sample for any research, Folwer reckoned faith is…
Research is all very well, but what if the results force you to rethink existing beliefs and behaviours? I’ve just been challenged like that about a compassion course I co-tutor. The course emerged out of hospital corridor conversations where staff…
Pregnant, yet deep within I knew I couldn’t give this baby life. The decision was made to abort and way back then I was unaware of how this experience would influence my spiritual development. Now, as a much older woman,…
The conversation had rippled and sparkled. My doctor friend and I juggled theological ideas as they tumbled out and into the space between us. But as he got up to leave my heart sank. ‘Oh no’, I thought, ‘after all…
Did you ever have a first love that you couldn’t leave behind? Whatever new friends you made, you just wanted that connection so much, even though it was hard to figure out what it was all about, exactly? Theo and…
Reading Divine Dance: the Trinity and Your Transformation reconnected me with the insightful 20th century Trinity of The Matrix movie when she announced to the chosen, but reluctant Neo that ‘it’s the question driving us’. Like, everyone, he faced the…
Compassion is a hot topic. A quick Google search throws up over 87 million references. Healthcare providers are increasingly promoting it as central to care. Yet, until recently, it has been ‘one of the most referenced yet poorly understood elements…