Review: 21 Miles, Swimming in search of the meaning of motherhood

Warning: Don’t read this post if you’re interested in fertility and haven’t yet read 21 Miles, Swimming in Search of the Meaning of Motherhood by Jessica Hepburn. I wouldn’t want to ruin what could be a beautiful experience for you.

This is not so much as a review, as 21 reasons why Jessica Hepburn should step onto the stage and take a bow. Continue reading “Review: 21 Miles, Swimming in search of the meaning of motherhood”

Suspend your rational faculties

A word of advice on reading Jay Griffiths’ Kith, The Riddle of the Childscape – suspend your rational faculties. Surrender to the lyricism. Let nostalgia woo you.  Be carried on the wings of your imagination. Allow yourself to spiral into your childhood (either the one you really had or the one about which you fantasise) and go with Griffiths into a secret garden of faerie, forests, daemon and metaphor. Roam free. Continue reading “Suspend your rational faculties”

Bring ‘Em All In – starring Flaming Nora, Greenbelt Festival and my sis

This video brings together so many things I don’t know how to categorise it….

It’s the all-time uplifting Bring ‘Em All In by Mike Scott, performed by the brilliant Flaming Nora and the full-on festival spirit of Greenbelt 2012 in a ceremony devised by my sister Tess Ward.

Thanks Duncan MaClarens for making it.

Now where does it belong? Poetry? Prayer? Community? Philosophy? Digital?

I’m going to put it in motherhood because I was standing in white next to my sister. Her daughter was beside her and her husband was behind us and my son was in front of us and my God-families were around us and because there was a sense of family that was bigger than all of that.

Bring ‘Em All In….