Champagne Parties and the Public Life

Champagne Parties and the Public Life

I recently came across the phrase “hall of mirrors”, used as a metaphor to represent our “whimsical culture”, our “fragile and rapidly changing identities” and “needing a lot of affirmation”1. I took the point and could...
The Undoing

The Undoing

I recently found myself in front of a mirror making a response that had been conditioned in front of a screen. I was deciding what to wear for the day. I’d already donned a skirt and long-sleeved top… skivvy-ish. I was mooting a second top over the first… sleeveless....
Building Secure Bridges

Building Secure Bridges

My four-year-old grandson is fascinated by the Tasman Bridge. This towering structure with its scary and risky stories draws his little mind and its curiosity. Thirty years ago, the same fascination dwelt in his father. I’m regularly caught up in déjà vu as I drive...
Moments & Droplets

Moments & Droplets

The kids are back at school and settling in. I was walking through the grounds of a school on day three of term, on my way to a meeting. I had to wait for a minute while a single file of prep-aged children, following their teacher, crossed my path on their way to a...
The Poets

The Poets

Using just a few words, a poet can shift how we sense ourselves, and tune us to something we’ve never heard before. Author and activist Parker J. Palmer refers to good poetry as a ‘third thing’. It brings a presence that has a voice of its own. This voice is not the...
Authenticity Paradox

Authenticity Paradox

Brilliant sky, searing sun and red horizon. Glittering water, floral profusion, waterbirds, and fish. These are both the authentic desert. I started school in the arid and isolated little town of Woomera in South Australia.  While living there, my dad built a boat....