Over Christmas, my books piled high, and on a theme. There was Katherine May’s Wintering, a New York Times bestseller, about the power of rest and retreat in difficult times; the Chronicles of Narnia, beginning with an endless winter; and James Rebanks’ The Shepherd’s Life. As the Meadows disappeared beneath the snow, I Read more
Back in March, a tweet of remote working guidelines from the Canadian federal government went viral. ‘You are not “working from home”’, it said. ‘You are “at your home, during a crisis, trying to work.”’ I liked this line. A lot of us did. It captured how remote working Read more
This week, news broke of an effective vaccine against coronavirus. Pfizer and BioNTech’s RNA vaccine, one of 11 in the final stages of testing, has a 90% success rate in preventing the illness. The UK government has already purchased 40 million doses – enough to vaccinate 20 million of us. Read more
With rising COVID cases, and the US election, it’s a pensive week for many. For this week’s MindLetter, we revisit how to look after ourselves in the midst of strong emotions and uncertainty. Hang in there. Responding Wisely to Fear and Worry The spread of coronavirus around the world is creating Read more
As going on holiday is somewhat restricted this autumn, we revisit what happens when we go on holiday in the living-room… Staying on Holiday at Home It’s half-term. You have a week booked in Devon. You are, frankly, desperate for it. But your child, or flat-mate, has a persistent cough. It’s Friday night, your Read more
‘It’s late and I’m feeling so tired,’ sings Corinne Bailey Rae. ‘Having trouble sleeping…’ It’s a sentiment familiar to many. A King’s College London study finds that two thirds of us have experienced some negative effect on sleep since the pandemic began, with a disproportionate impact on women, young people, and those facing financial difficulties. Read more
This week, I had a mind to make a crumble. Here’s my recipe. I hope you enjoy. An Apple Crumble in a Pandemic Ingredients 1 large windfall from Grange Road Cemetery Sweet eaters (and a stray pear) from your veg box A handful of pre-lockdown raspberries 350g emergency plain flour 1 Read more
One of the things people who come to a mindfulness class say is how mindfulness exposes their experience of time. ‘How long was that?’ they ask at the end of a thirty minute body scan, surprised to hear that they have spent a whole half-hour attending to the ebb and Read more
This week’s MindLetter is about autumn, and stores of nourishment for hard times. A Matter of Preservation The American writer Tara Westover, whose bestselling memoir Educated chronicles her journey from home-schooled rural Idaho to a PhD at Cambridge, grew up in a family preparing for the End of Days. ‘My Read more
Your inbox is full of emails. All the emails contain links. You are supposed to follow the links, which will take you to webpages. You have to read, and sometimes watch, the webpages. There is stuff in them that you are meant to know. There is even some stuff that Read more