The King was desperate. His family suppers were driving him to distraction. All the bickering, backstabbing and rivalry. When would this family learn to start treating each other with consideration and respect? He had tried putting things in the food, … Continue reading →

I’ve been aware of my tendency to over-plan my life for a while now, but lately it’s becoming clearer to me what sits at the root of this habit. The deepest longing I know is to give to life: to … Continue reading →

My friend Annika walks the slack line. It’s a length of flat webbing strung between two trees in her garden and it teaches her all about presence. Why presence? Because Annika struggles to meditate. Sitting still makes her nervous, but … Continue reading →

For thousands of years our ancestors would tell stories about the Great Mystery. On every continent, and in every climate where humans had learned to survive, the stories they told addressed the question “how did we get here?” That’s such … Continue reading →

If everyone on the planet were happy and content, it would not be about food. Having enough food would cure hunger, but it would not create happiness and contentment. If all humans could be free of war and other scourges, … Continue reading →

Here is a story that rocked me to the core. Some of its images have stayed with me ever since I first received it last summer. It addresses shame, which in my experience one of the hardest emotions to identify … Continue reading →

Before the modern age, a person’s course in life was defined by what their parents had done. All of that’s changed now, of course: a very familiar trope in Hollywood movies involves the protagonist saying “No, Dad! I don’t want … Continue reading →

When the lockdown started, the words I often heard people using were “scary” and “frightening”. A few weeks later the word pinging around in my inbox was “bizarre”. Currently it looks like “the new normal” might be the phrase. I’m … Continue reading →

The current crisis asks me to live as if what is mine today might be gone tomorrow. It invites me to find my peace with uncertainty by raising my inner game. Two essential questions get stirred up by all this: … Continue reading →

Here’s a story for children all about that within us which cannot be destroyed. It tells of a girl whose hair cannot be cut. Although creating havoc in her family and early relationships, this strangely resilient (and eventually very long!) … Continue reading →

When I was a child my mother would buy a big Christmas tree every December and we’d all decorate it with baubles, tinsel and fairy lights. One Christmas eve, aged fourteen years old, I took a walk outside in the … Continue reading →

What is the essence of healing? Where does responsibility for our healing journey lie? These are big questions, and I took a deep dive into them with Dr Cathy Holway recently. I don’t know anyone I’d rather explore this territory … Continue reading →

I saw the film “Wonder” recently. It’s a sweet movie, telling the story of a boy who is born deformed and spends much of his childhood not wanting to be seen. It showed how shame can get a hold of … Continue reading →

This time last year I recognised that I had been walling myself off from the many crises that humanity is facing. I had been trying to create a bubble of calm in a sea of chaos, and the resulting isolation … Continue reading →

Earlier this year I called a Story Circle on the theme of Gratitude. I got a lot of very touching responses, which I took with me into an intuitive storytelling session. The story that came, however, led me through a … Continue reading →

I met my wife Sundara three years before we became lovers. In the interim I lost touch with her, but throughout that period I was possessed by a very real and tangible sense of fear. This fear seemed to have … Continue reading →

Last spring I called a Story Circle on the theme of Love. People answered questions online, and some joined me for an online call, and we all went deeply into these questions: “what does love mean to you? What has … Continue reading →

I’m preparing a Christmas performance of stories for children and have been digging into the archive of stories that I told at my children’s bedside when they were young. They are now 11 and 13 years old, and a very, … Continue reading →

All my life I’ve tracked a wavering course between purity and impurity. I yearn for a spiritual cleansing in which all my faults will be erased and I will no longer feel so vulnerable. And yet all my attempts to … Continue reading →

This summer Sundara and I were shocked to discover that one of our dearest friends had cancer. Parabhakti is younger than us, and totally dedicated to his spiritual path and to the art of wellbeing. And yet the way that … Continue reading →

We have always needed to answer the basic human questions: “Who are we? What are we in the middle of? What does all this mean and where are we going?” These fundamental questions don’t go away because they are more … Continue reading →

Quick note: My two intuitive storytelling trainings are already enrolling. If you’d like to learn Intuitive Storytelling with me this autumn check out this page. When I was eighteen I went on my first “Forest School Camp”. Over one hundred … Continue reading →

Even though we’ve been living in our new house for several months now, the noise of the nearby motorway can still bug me. And that itself intrigues me, because there’s always something. If it wasn’t the road noise, probably it … Continue reading →

My wife Sundara has created a series of screen savers for us both, with pithy quotes from spiritual teachers we like, set against beautiful images. It’s nice to have my workflow interrupted by these reminders to stay present to the … Continue reading →