Today’s theme is nature, but in writing I’m also mindful of the themes of our last few Mixing Bowl blogs: dance, connection, and gratitude. During lockdown, nature has been one of the things I have been most grateful for. Walks, listening to the birds, watching the trees wave in the breeze, observing the changing seasons […]

This blog is an ode to dance. It’s a bit of a weird time to be writing a blog about dance, theatres and clubs are closed, parties and weddings have been cancelled. The amount of dancing being done right now must be at its lowest in decades. I’m also not really the ideal person to […]

“Do you know why we have the sunflowers? It’s not because Vincent van Gogh suffered. It’s because Vincent van Gogh had a brother who loved him. Through all the pain, he had a tether, a connection to the world. And that is the focus of the story we need – connection.” Hannah Gadsby Having a […]

I’m involved in leading mindfulness sessions at the Northumbria University. At the moment the sessions don’t include gratitude exercises, but I’m working on it because research does keep showing up strong correlations between practices cultivating conscious gratitude and good mental health outcomes. Indicators of happiness tend to improve and incidence of and severity of depression […]

In thinking about creation in Genesis, we now jump over a bit. We’re going to focus on the second story of creation which puts Adam and Eve and the garden of Eden at the centre. This is a separate story with details that don’t really harmonise with the narrative of chapter 1 to 2:3. So […]

And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.’ And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of […]

20 And God said, ‘Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.’ 21 So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw […]

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two […]