Thanatophobia. The word may be unfamiliar but the older you get the more familiar you will become with its meaning. Thanatophobia is the fear of death or more specifically being dead or dying; and according to those ‘Top Ten’ surveys that frequent the internet, it remains unchallenged as the number one fear most common to mankind.
The transition from hospice to hospital strips us of a number of luxuries – among those treasures, a free car park. My new routine is to park the car on the driveway of some friends, who live that little bit closer to the hospital than we do, so that I can make a brief 15 minute journey on foot and avoid having to sell my car in order to meet the hospital’s car park charges!
A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across an article in The Guardian that was trending on Facebook. If you’re one of those people that likes to box and label a person by the newspaper they read, save yourself the stationery and storage space. The only newspaper you’ll find in our home is the weekly Berrow’s Worcester Journal which fuels our stove before it gets a chance to fuel our minds!
A few weeks ago I was introduced to the word ‘Earworm’. It sounds like a medical condition (and maybe there is such a thing!) but the context in which this word was used was actually a musical condition.
I don’t think that there has ever been a time in my life where the subject of God’s Sovereignty has been so powerfully prevalent to Annie and me as it has in the last couple of months. Trying to recall a time seems futile because I feel if there was such a time, it would not have been so easily forgotten! I’m careful to write ‘the subject of’ because – of course – the fact of God’s Sovereignty surrounds and permeates all things irrespective of my conscious contemplation of it. God’s Sovereignty is not dependant on my realisation of it! Continue reading
On Thursday, April 26th at around 5:30pm our blog reached the 100,000 views marker. At the time of writing this post it stands at around 101,500 views.
In a fortnight, our blog will have been running for six months. This current post is the 76th and the blog is getting closer to 100,000 hits. To put that figure into the context of the web-sphere, it’s not that great a deal. The now very famous ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’ Youtube clip alone received 2.6 million hits in nine-months; a further 10 million the following month and by the following 12 months had reached 92 million hits! If you’ve seen the clip you’ll appreciate what I mean when I say that 56 seconds of pain (someone else’s!) and laughter can go a long way! If you’ve not seen the clip (where have you been!?) be my guest; click the link above and add your number to the millions (at the time of writing this, that clip’s hits is at 443 million!)
There’s been a little part of me that is reluctant to say the three words that are routinely exchanged between people this time of the year. It has nothing to do with our current circumstances, I’ve felt the same way for a long time. Of course, I can’t completely avoid saying those three words because as soon as I hear them repeated to me, it’s knee-jerk etiquette to bounce them right back. I’d appear really rude and cold if I didn’t finish my half of the annual dialogue deal. “Happy New Year?” Continue reading
The Christmas season has always been an especially busy time of the year for Annie and I. That’s because as Christians, Christmas is one of the greatest seasons of gospel opportunity. Usually by December 24th we’re both saying to one another: “Next year, we really need to try harder not to take as much on.” Continue reading
Broken Chariots 