Blog Articles
Re-evaluating the power of touch
The conversation was not one I was unfamiliar with. Discussing a serious diagnosis, a worrying test result, or a life...
Remembering what we believe in
"Assumptions!" declared a voice. I looked up to find a tall man in a cassock and dog collar, clutching a bible to his...
Revolutionary: Spaces for Listening
What do you gift yourself when you have everything you can buy and are unable to have what you really want, for your...
Remembering Dolly and the nurture of nature.
It is Autumn now and I still really miss her. Every morning, that leap of joy as I went downstairs to see if she was still with us, and in the warm, soft evenings, talking gently under the tree, her eyes following me, knowingly, wise beyond her years. She...
Remarking on the igglepiggle moments
Eight years ago I wrote about the ‘Igglepiggle moments’ of my clinical practice. The quick fixes in paediatric ED that punctuate my week and lighten the load, reminding me why I love my job, grounding me in what really matters. I was reminded again this week of my...
Redefine professionalism at your peril
“If I want to get plastered on a Saturday night, and fight on my High Street,” a surgeon told me about 12 years ago, “ I can.” At that time I took issue with his view, my lofty beliefs then suggesting that professionalism was something we were, part of our...
Retreating from the world.
I can't leave the garden this evening. It's not a large garden – the size of some people’s kitchens, where they cook in front of friends and serve “supper” at the table, a happy, chaotic mess, wine bottles strewn around, pans in the sink, kids paintings on the...
Really, really want
In the words of the 1990s pop song, what do we want? What do we really, really want? From life? From work? From each other? Many people have asked this question over the centuries and most of the time the answers are a variation on the same theme. As human...
Realigning our priorities
Five people, strangers, met one sunny Friday in early September. They had not met previously, but had come together with one sole purpose in mind – to create. Standing around in an airy workshop, stuffed to the rafters with material, tools, objects and knick knacks,...
Re entering the wonderful world of work.
For the first time in six months, I felt I had a place in the world again. Six long months of uncertainty, of worry, or wondering if I would ever be needed in the ways that I was previously pre Covid. Not that we are post Covid at the moment, but we are...
Re-humanising at every encounter
“I’m not as scary as I look," he said, this young, wide eyed man standing in front of me. "I have been inside, for four years but it was for beating up my step dad, who beat up my step mum. I wouldn’t hurt anyone else. I’ve done my time and now I just...
Rejoicing in our history
My little girl was leaving her school that day to start at a new one after the half term break, so when a stranger appeared with her when she came out at the end of the day, I was a little surprised. Who was this woman and why was she accompanying my daughter off the...