Blog: Mel's Muse

Catching Contentment By Liz Carter - Book Club Discussion

I first heard of Liz Carter’s book, Catching Contentment, when I read, somewhere, that she had suffered a lifelong illness. Instantly, that resonated with me. Having undergone a similar experience, myself, I felt a closeness with Liz that belied the fact that we had never met, nor communicated in any...

Posted at 17:45pm on 15th March 2019

Inside Out

‘Making clean-eating a dirty word gets my vote’, so says Bryony Gordon in The Daily Telegraph. Quoting the Duchess of Cornwall, who was speaking at a reception for the Royal Osteoporosis Society, she warned young women against ‘fad diets’ which have the potential of making them ill. Lack of dairy...

Posted at 16:10pm on 26th February 2019

Encountering The God Who Heals - Book Club Review

This book, Encountering The God Who Heals, was recommended by a man who had heard John Ryeland speak, and was greatly enthused by what he had to say. Personally, as I told my Book Club members, I didn’t find it an easy read but that, I felt, had more to...

Posted at 10:50am on 18th November 2018

Eleanor Oliphant Is Absolutely Fine - Book Club Review

Have you ever been aware of others talking about you behind your back? Perhaps when you’ve been standing alone, catching the flickering glances of a nearby group? Knowing, without doubt, that the whispered exchanges in some way refer to you?

So how did it feel? Especially if, like Katie Piper, for...

Posted at 15:23pm on 15th November 2018

Remember: 1914-1918

Peace, not war, the desire of our hearts

Is, sadly, not always our choice.

When opinion divides and appeasement departs

Our foes have the loudest voice.

And so it was, in nineteen fourteen

When Ferdinand drew his last breath,

And the Central Powers set the scene

For the horrors of carnage and death.

Global conflict, for four long...

Posted at 20:51pm on 10th November 2018

Catching Contentment - A Guest Blog

I lay on a trolley in A and E, my breathing coming in rapid gasps. My oxygen sats were too low and the pain clamped me in a vice grip, leaving me crying out. ‘It’s a pneumococcal infection in both lungs,’ the consultant said, and admitted me for intensive IV...

Posted at 09:58am on 9th November 2018

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Thomas's Story: Overcoming Physical & Mental Struggles

My next book, Picked for a Purpose, with the strapline Bearing fruit through times of hardship, was written at the request of my publisher. Each short chapter contains a story from my life, followed by a page or two of reflections, in which I look back, with the wisdom of...

Posted at 16:08pm on 20th October 2018

World Mental Health Day: Don't Chase The World

DON’T CHASE THE WORLD

Why do I feel such a waste of space?

Why is life always such a race –

To emulate, or, better yet

To surpass the success with which others have met?

Is this the world in which I live?

Is this the future I wish to give

To those who follow on from...

Posted at 08:33am on 10th October 2018

Book Club: Sensible Shoes - Who Are You & Where Have You Come From?

WHO ARE YOU? GUILT RIDDEN?

You pick up the phone, an unknown voice asks: ‘Is that the owner of the house?’ Indeed, sometimes they may address you by name. And what is your immediate response? Mine is never to affirm the query but to ask, ‘Who are you?’

This, however, is not...

Posted at 17:55pm on 10th September 2018

Suicide Prevention Day: The Trauma For Those Left Behind

THE TRAUMA FOR THOSE LEFT BEHIND

I spent the morning speaking with a male friend, of longstanding, whose mother took her own life when he was in his mid-teens. Coincidence? I had no idea that today, Monday 10th September, 2018 is World Suicide Prevention Day. Nor that my daily newspaper was...

Posted at 16:04pm on 10th September 2018

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