Tanya Marlow – on the Bible, suffering and the messy edges of life
Posted in Spirituality and discipleship on May 29th, 2013
“The antidote to laziness is not to work harder. It’s easy to work a 70-hour-week and then get ill. Anyone can do it. Many are. “If you want to avoid the deadly sins of sloth and workaholism, there is a harder call.” The team at Threads magazine are doing a great series on the [...]
Posted in Spirituality and discipleship on Apr 17th, 2013
“Just at the point where I was ready to quit, a teacher played along with me. I stopped focusing on what I was doing wrong, and I followed her lead; I listened to the music. I played it badly, but I played it. And somewhere in the midst of just doing it anyway, I discovered [...]
Posted in God and suffering - Our Story on Mar 12th, 2013
Diana Trautwein is the blogosphere’s spiritual grandmother, with a vast amount of ministry and life experience. Every interaction with her feels like I’m sitting down in front of a warm fire, eating tea and muffins. It’s a pleasure to have her here today: I was 52 years old when I started my first paid pastoral [...]
Posted in Concrete words: childhood and maturity on Feb 25th, 2013
“I don’t know – maybe I should call my flute teacher, the one who teaches me,” said my flute teacher to my mother. “It could be that she’s taking a little longer to get the knack of the tone because she hasn’t got the right shaped mouth. Some people don’t.” I stood in my [...]
Posted in Emotions, Spirituality and discipleship on Feb 6th, 2013
If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing badly. Sitting on a leather sofa, sipping water and wiping tears, I presented her with my angsty questions. I looked at her proper grown-up mantel piece and knew that I was supposed to be grown up by now, in my mid-twenties. She pulled her fingers through [...]
Posted in God and suffering - Our Story on Dec 18th, 2012
I heard Emily Wierenga’s voice for the first time a while ago, on a youtube video, and I smiled, because it so perfectly matches her blog. She speaks softly and gently so you need to lean in close; it is full of sweetness and sparkles with the kind of joy that has been hard-won. I [...]
Posted in Art and Story and Writing, living with M.E. on Sep 4th, 2012
I was seventeen, and alone, crying uncontrollably in the corridor. And I went to my French lesson anyway. ******* It was the end of form period and the bell had just rung for the final lesson of the day. “Tanya, could you stay behind for a moment?” my form tutor asked. [...]
Posted in Culture and Society, Recommendations and Reviews, Spirituality and discipleship on Aug 22nd, 2012
What kind of label did you have as you were growing up? There are many ways that we’re labelled to differentiate ourselves from others. Amongst our family or friends we become known as ‘the pretty one’, ‘the funny one’, ‘the smart one’, ‘the rebel’, ‘the loud one’. These labels form part of our identity, [...]
