Month: August 2026

I was just slicing cheese on my wooden chopping board. I found myself wanting to stab the knife in it so it stood on its own – so I did and it inspired this post (I even photographed it for you).

Even something we think of as solid, wood cut from a tree, is not totally solid otherwise the knife would have fallen over.

We want clearly defined boundaries.

We want other people to understand and observe them.

We want to make our lives as simple as humanly possible.

The latter is something I strive for but I cannot ignore the evidence of my eyes, ears, nose, my body. Things are not neat! I always chuckled growing up when I heard in Poirot episodes,

“Do you like the country, Monsieur Poirot?”
“It is very pleasant, apart from the untidy habit of the trees shedding their leaves.”

We’re all molecules bouncing off each other, if you believe the physics. I don’t pretend to know but many do because they don’t want to appear stupid or ignorant. Our egos are our downfall.

Everyone on Twitter is decrying the Revenue Sharing programme’s closing down and the ‘original content’ scheme is starting with nigh on impossible stipulations to earn from it. Honey traps! I knew the Revenue Share was going to implode before it had even gone live. You can’t turn a social media platform into a job. It doesn’t work that way but so many are so desperate for it to be true.

We’re afraid of the slog.

We’re afraid of taking time.

We’re in such a hurry to make things dependable rather than resilient.

We’re also terrified to admit that intelligence really does make a difference!

You know what I’m going to say – don’t wait for others to give you what you want. Give of yourself – your motivations and your efforts.

I do laugh at myself sometimes.

I have grand aspirations of devising the perfect system, the absolute ideal way to spend my day. Case in point, I have lost count of the amount of times I’ve attempted to put together the perfect schedule to ‘get my work’ done and to organise my life.

This is where some of the laughter comes in – because I am already far above average in efficiency and effectiveness. I get the job done yet I have an enormous streak of perfectionism in me. It’s debilitating at times.

After version, let me think, 20, 30? Not sure, haha (more laughter!) I’ve decided (again, hehe!) that getting the work done on any given day doesn’t need to timestamp. The sense of satisfaction is what counts.

Freedom and Flexibility are greater than planning and rigidity.

Bear with me! 

I take this path very often and I still marvel at this wall. When I moved back to my village, there was a very powerful storm which took out many of the walls here and, including this one, lay lying in rubble for months at least.

When I started to see this one, I was so pleased because it looked a real mess!

Now, you will see from the picture, the obvious dividing line between the wall that remained intact and the wall which was rebuilt. The beautiful thing though that, even looking so new, it’s all the same stones that were relaid but the reinstated blocks were given the mother of all cleans.

They’re the same stones but given a new lease of life.

We think we have to constantly reinvent ourselves (it’s language that’s used for pop stars, artists, etc.) but we don’t. Our intrinsic natures remain solid and pure. That’s the beauty of this wall and of each individual person on this planet. We have our own place, we dwell in our own niches.

We are good as we are we just need to be true to our place and our callings. And the beauty is, those stones in their proper place all support each other.

People make tall claims. I hear it often.

I’ve just read a comment in a private Telegram group I’m part of remarking on a grand country house another group member had been staying at…

“Unfortunately we don’t have the tradesmen who could build anything like this anymore. All by design.”

I read this and thought, oh, is that right? You know that do you? Are you providence? You have all the answers, do you?

Tall claims often walk hand-in-hand with ego – a desire for everyone to match your beliefs – there’s a gloominess in it but worldviews can be all-consuming, myopic – very difficult to see out of.

Just because you don’t hear about a particular skill, a rarified specialism, someone’s marvellous gifts doesn’t mean they don’t exist. And this isn’t me being Pollyanna. In a world of billions of people, you honestly believe there aren’t people who could do extraordinary things.

A lacking worldview.

The most fascinating thing I see in people is their willingness to live and think tinily – if I believe it, it must be true.

Dangerous. 

Most days, I walk past the primary school I attended in the late-80s and early-90s. I often imagine the teachers coming to me and asking me to give a talk to the young children about what advice I would give them.

“Don’t wait!” is always the first thing that comes to mind.

If there’s a project you want to do.

If there’s something you want to write.

An artwork you want to produce.

Start taking photographs of local beauty spots.

Don’t wait.

It’s good guidance at any stage of life.

Now, don’t be a twat and imagine I’m suggesting they should start having sex really early (the reality is many children do but, of course, it’s not advisable). It’s why it’s so difficult to talk with people these days as everything’s so fucking extreme.

Start to row your own boat, that’s what I’m saying.