‘Would you like a digestif? Limoncello? It’s on the house.’ The waiter, dressed impossibly tight, black jeans, white-tight t-shirt, thick leather belt, ankles bare above leather loafers, hipster beard, sculpted hair—you get the picture—tilts his head and we shrug a why not? ‘ Si. Grazie. We would love limoncello.’ I sighed. How perfect. The sky […]
The Music of Life: Writing in Italy The pop of a cork from a Prosecco bottle. Soft, murmuring Italian voices. Cucina. Mangiare. Si Grazie. Bene. Words, food, sharing, friendship in a bookshop café in Florence. My friend and I sit and write. An iced café, served in an Italian wine glass, invites us to sip […]
There is a season for wildness and a season for settledness, and this is neither. This season is about becoming. Shauna Niequist I call myself a writer, but I haven’t written anything in the last two weeks. Travelling in Italy has been distracting to say the least, but that’s not the real issue. I don’t […]
Have you ever walked into a room and felt naked? Have you ever shown anyone something you created and cringed? Have you ever felt like running away and hiding in shame? Being a creative person means being vulnerable enough to enter the room and be naked (creatively) without shame. Elizabeth Gilbert tells us that fierce […]
We all have a story promise in us. Something sown deep within that seeks to be released. Perhaps some of you have that lump in your throat, that heart race, that visceral response in your body that tells you it’s time to make a promise. It may be time to give yourself permission to honour […]
It was 9am on the 26th of February 2010. I sat down at the kitchen table with a coffee and my notebook. I had an idea—an idea that I wanted to write a novel. I’d met a character in my early morning dreamtime. I pictured her. I heard her voice. I imagined what would happen […]
Q Commons is a live learning experience that challenges attendees to stay curious, think well, and advance good in their communities and yesterday I had the privilege of attending the Perth event. One of the speakers spoke about the irrelevance of faith and told us: Over 46% of our neighbors believe religion and people of faith […]
Well, here we are at one hundred days!* The journey I set out on is not the journey I anticipated, but isn’t that life? There are no wrong turnings. Only paths we had not known we were meant to walk. Guy Gavriel Kay Elizabeth Gilbert said, ‘There is no interruption. Life is in session.’ By this […]
When I began this quest to complete a one hundred day creative challenge I wasn’t sure I’d get to this point. In the beginning it was an idea sparked by Hillsong’s Cass Langton and I decided to run with it. When you start something it’s like a mustard seed. You sow something small and it grows […]
