Prologue
Sunday night, 4th Honourmoon
Martha gripped the storm lamp, her knuckles blanching as shadows danced on the stone walls and timbers of the croft. Voices rose from the darkness outside: men approaching along the dry path from the village. A hammering at the door startled her. She spun towards the sound. Bit her lip. Turned on her heel again to sweep her lamp around, searching the kitchen… Read More »
Landscape
In our world of noise, time-struggle, cynicism, secularism and conflict on all levels, recovering our senses that we might see more, hear more and feel more may appear a step too far for many of us. With all the technological advances that should release us and make us time rich, we become exhausted and the notions of rest, recuperation and mindfulness are… Read More »
Introduction
The story of the Elim Pentecostal Church in the UK is an inspirational and, at times, a miraculous one. Its beginnings, in particular, have that obvious touch of divine activity. Not only was the presence of God obviously experienced throughout the first twenty-five years of Elim’s existence, but… Read More »
Danish winters can be long and dark – and yet the Danes are some of the happiest people in the world. Their winter practice of ‘hygge’ – something akin to ‘cosiness’ – is a key reason for this, transforming the bleakest season into one of connection and warmth.
In her stunning new book, Walking through Winter, Katherine Gantlett shows us how we too can… Read More »
There are currently 700,000 people caring for family members with dementia in the UK, yet how many us know what life is truly like for these devoted companions?* Often their life and their identity, just like their loved one with the condition, is dominated by the disease. So how do they keep looking forward and put the ‘giant’ that dementia can seem to be, behind their back?
When Carolyn Donnelly’s husband was diagnosed with mixed dementia… Read More »
Did you know that half the people on Noah’s ark were women? But what do we know about them and what can we learn from the uncertainty, change and new beginnings they must have been confronted by, all issues that echo for us today?
In her inspiring, honest and compelling book… Read More »
Where are we going?
Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it.
Matthew 11:29 (The Message)
The Quaker writer and retreat leader Parker Palmer writes that a calling is ‘something you can’t not do’. This is how writing this book has felt. It has taken me more than seven years to get our story down on paper. In that time, there have been many occasions when… Read More »
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Our Dementia Journey Begins
Why is it that so often we give places names or titles that are the very antithesis of the function that the place in question is known for or provides? Take the name ‘health centre’, for example. Was there ever a less apt name? Surely the main reason for going to a health centre is because at the very least you feel less than healthy and at the very most you feel the exact opposite of it. Perhaps it is a classic example of how, as a society, we always tend to accentuate the positive at the expense of being honest about the reality… Read More »
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Before the Flood
Imagine you live in a village and you stroll along the riverbank where you used to play as a child. Imagine each morning you walk outside, feeling the coolness of the dew-filled grass beneath your bare feet, and look at a cloudless blue sky where the sun always shines. Imagine your three boys have grown up and left your homestead to live with their wives. Imagine your husband telling you one evening in front of the fire that God has spoken to him about a flood… Read More »
It’s ‘impossible to read without encountering hope’.
I was so thrilled by these words! They were written by one of the very first people to read my novel – a dear, retired pastor friend who I had nervously approached to endorse the book. His words now appear inside The Healing, and on its back cover, and I was thrilled because they highlighted the message I wanted the book to convey… Read More »
