Life and Living

Parent

Life lessons: do you know what yours are?


Life lessons are not about owning big houses or flash cars but about our personal qualities and our ability to relate to others. They may include such lessons as learning to listen to others or defining and holding your boundaries. Our individual life lessons do not come to us neatly catalogued. We must endeavour to understand what they are so we can modify how we handle a challenge to gain a better probability of learning the lesson. Many of the challenges in our lives are not just bad luck but situations we have in a sense asked for to help us learn a lesson. read more

By Alison Wem, ago

ABC of love: j is for joy

Experiencing Joy.

The sight and the sound of the sea always lifts my emotions and makes me feel good. Simple things like this brings me joy.

Are you Following Your Dreams?

Life is meant to be lived and enjoyed.  Everyone should have a dream of how they would like their life to be.  Dreams are made to be followed.

To enjoy your life to the full, it is important to take some steps, no matter how small they are, to achieving your dreams.

This post is dedicated to those struggling to find joy. read more

By Alison Wem, ago

City gardening: do you like to get your hands in the soil?

Humans were not meant to be so remote from Mother Nature as perhaps many of us are who live in towns and cities.  In the UK, councils have started to set-up allotments on spare pieces of land perhaps besides a railway or between roads.  Some councils have chosen to allow residents to grow vegetables where formerly municipal flowers were planted.

In London where I live, I have managed to get an allotment allocated to our family.  To help children learn where their food comes from, the allotment only allows 20% of your patch to be given over to flowers.  The council gardeners encourage you to grow flowers that attract bees such as sun flowers or nasterchiums whose flowers you can eat in a salad. read more

By Alison Wem, ago

Divorce: do you live with the fall-out from another person’s failed relationship?

One of the greatest gifts you can give a child is a happy childhood.  Sadly divorce happens.  The impact goes far wider than the couple who have decided to split – their children, parents, aunts, uncles and wider family, friends and new partners.

The true impact of divorce is often not spoken of in a family and can continue for many tens of years after the decree absolute.  Even new partners and their families can be caught up in the web of emotions.  There are those awkward family gatherings when you are not sure who to invite and if everyone will get along alright. read more

By Alison Wem, ago