Ignorance and Want

 

Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' has long been one of my favourite stories. One of the most stirring parts of the tale is the appearance of Ignorance and Want beneath the robes of the Ghost of Christmas Present. 'A Christmas Carol' is relevant and poignant every year, it has helped make me a more generous person and generosity always seem to be something we could do more of along with love, kindness, patience, compassion, forgiveness, peace ...

 

Poetry Therapy

 

I have enjoyed reading and writing poetry since I was little girl. The first poetry I fell in love with was contained in Peacock Pie by Walter de la Mare, in my adolescence I became obsessed with Sylvia Plath and the poems contained in Ariel. From 2000 to 2005 I ran my own poetry group 'SubVerse' which explored 'the Poetry of surrender'. We also ran art events and unassertiveness courses, looking back it was all fun and therapeutic, I kind of miss it.

Moving forward I encountered more poetry as I moved away from Christianity into Buddhism, there was much talk about Rumi. A favourite poem among the mindful is Leisure by WH Davies. Below is a wonderful poetry anthology you can dip into throughout the year, it includes many therapeutic poems including Leisure.