What does one do with the space that is left after a daughter moves out and gets married? (Other than sit there, curled in her favourite chair, missing her badly?)
Turn the space into a YouTube Studio, of course!
Well, okay - it wasn't really the space that inspired me to log back into my YouTube channel and create some new material. It was the idea to make some short, quick videos to help kids learn to enjoy writing.
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I’m a bit of a fan of Patricia Weerakoon and her resources for families and children. She tackles the tricky subjects with gentle honesty and a Christian faith-based perspective. You & Me by the Book is no different. It’s a large form picture book to designed help young children understand, as the text says, ‘God’s good plan for girls and boys’. The illustrations are done by Lisa Flanagan, who also illustrated Weekakoon’s excellent Birds and Bees By the Book series (a series I was privileged to provide editorial support for). The book is supported by an extensive Pointers for Parents and Caregivers section at the end, and this encourages discussion and openness between children and their trusted adults.
My house is built on the side of a hill. You walk in the front door and through the loungeroom to the kitchen, where you look out, directly east, across the tops of the trees. In the afternoons, as the sun sets in the west, the house and the trees in our front yard cast shadows over the view from our kitchen. We look out over the dulling colours of the day, waiting as everything visible sinks into dusk.
One time, as I stared out at the fading sky and shadowed trees, a cluster of cockatoos flew past. I caught my breath at their beauty. I wonder what would happen if we were honest. Really honest.
About how we felt. About how we've failed. About how it feels to fail and then try pick ourselves back up. Or, perhaps, to be picked up and held. Steady. Safe. Loved. Yes - even in our broken, faulty, fumbling state. If we were honest enough to be like that... What would happen? I've been thinking about honesty and failing for a while now. The Cartographer’s Presence is illustrator Stephen Reed’s authorial debut and I was excited to get a look, and a read, of his new book. As an illustrator, I’ve been following Reed’s work for a while. He’s collaborated with other writers on several book projects over the years including two collaborations with author and storyteller Naomi Reed: (The Zookeeper 2016 and The Conductor 2019) and one with Nicholas R. Lindeback. On This Mountains (Lindeback 2019) is a powerful picture book about the gospel reaching unreached people groups and Stephen’s work is instrumental in communicating the themes contained. This new book, The Cartographer’s Presence, builds on Reed’s gentle and expressive style. The difference here is that for this book, Reed also contributes as author.
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The Penny DropsIn high school I used to write what I'd call 'thinks' - little bits of writing about whatever topic or issue I was mulling over at the time. I still write these little pieces. Categories
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