The King was desperate. His family suppers were driving him to distraction. All the bickering, backstabbing and rivalry. When would this family learn to start treating each other with consideration and respect? He had tried putting things in th

Sailing to the East

Dec 22nd, 2021 20m 21s

I’ve been aware of my tendency to over-plan my life for a while now, but lately it’s becoming clearer to me what sits at the root of this habit. The deepest longing I know is to give to life: to … Continue reading →The post Sailing to the East

The Challenge of Balance

Jul 29th, 2021 55m 39s

My friend Annika walks the slack line. It’s a length of flat webbing strung between two trees in her garden and it teaches her all about presence. Why presence? Because Annika struggles to meditate. Sitting still makes her nervous, but … Contin

Rediscovering Mystery

Jan 21st, 2021 30m 42s

For thousands of years our ancestors would tell stories about the Great Mystery. On every continent, and in every climate where humans had learned to survive, the stories they told addressed the question “how did we get here?” That’s such … Con

The Elixir of Love

Dec 3rd, 2020 33m 8s

If everyone on the planet were happy and content, it would not be about food. Having enough food would cure hunger, but it would not create happiness and contentment. If all humans could be free of war and other scourges, … Continue reading →T

The Washerwoman and the Lord’s Ring

Nov 10th, 2020 26m 31s

Here is a story that rocked me to the core. Some of its images have stayed with me ever since I first received it last summer. It addresses shame, which in my experience one of the hardest emotions to identify … Continue reading →The post The

Finding Your Purpose

Oct 1st, 2020 56m 24s

Before the modern age, a person’s course in life was defined by what their parents had done. All of that’s changed now, of course: a very familiar trope in Hollywood movies involves the protagonist saying “No, Dad! I don’t want … Continue readi

Stories for Lockdown

May 7th, 2020 27m 23s

When the lockdown started, the words I often heard people using were “scary” and “frightening”. A few weeks later the word pinging around in my inbox was “bizarre”. Currently it looks like “the new normal” might be the phrase. I’m … Continue re

The Weaver and the King

Apr 16th, 2020 29m 27s

The current crisis asks me to live as if what is mine today might be gone tomorrow. It invites me to find my peace with uncertainty by raising my inner game. Two essential questions get stirred up by all this: … Continue reading →The post The

Claire’s Unbreakable Hair

Feb 14th, 2020 25m 37s

Here’s a story for children all about that within us which cannot be destroyed. It tells of a girl whose hair cannot be cut. Although creating havoc in her family and early relationships, this strangely resilient (and eventually very long!) … C

A Christmas Story

Dec 19th, 2019 5m 50s

When I was a child my mother would buy a big Christmas tree every December and we’d all decorate it with baubles, tinsel and fairy lights. One Christmas eve, aged fourteen years old, I took a walk outside in the … Continue reading →The post A

The Essence of Healing

Dec 5th, 2019 1h 11m

What is the essence of healing? Where does responsibility for our healing journey lie? These are big questions, and I took a deep dive into them with Dr Cathy Holway recently. I don’t know anyone I’d rather explore this territory … Continue rea

The Ferryman’s Gift

Oct 25th, 2019 42m 1s

I saw the film “Wonder” recently. It’s a sweet movie, telling the story of a boy who is born deformed and spends much of his childhood not wanting to be seen. It showed how shame can get a hold of … Continue reading →The post The Ferryman’s Gi

The Monk’s Message

Jul 2nd, 2019 22m 28s

This time last year I recognised that I had been walling myself off from the many crises that humanity is facing. I had been trying to create a bubble of calm in a sea of chaos, and the resulting isolation … Continue reading →

My Story of Gratitude

May 15th, 2019 30m 10s

Earlier this year I called a Story Circle on the theme of Gratitude. I got a lot of very touching responses, which I took with me into an intuitive storytelling session. The story that came, however, led me through a fascinating (and not always

Love is the scariest thing

Apr 4th, 2019 2m 57s

I met my wife Sundara three years before we became lovers. In the interim I lost touch with her, but throughout that period I was possessed by a very real and tangible sense of fear.This fear seemed to have no object, I just knew I had to get

Calling another Story Circle

Jan 15th, 2019 25m 55s

Last spring I called a Story Circle on the theme of Love. People answered questions online, and some joined me for an online call, and we all went deeply into these questions: “what does love mean to you? What has been your experience of love?

The Gardener’s Golden Grass Clippings

Dec 19th, 2018 24m

I’m preparing a Christmas performance of stories for children and have been digging into the archive of stories that I told at my children’s bedside when they were young. They are now 11 and 13 years old, and a very, very long way from having

The Sweetest Fruit of All

Nov 21st, 2018 24m 1s

All my life I’ve tracked a wavering course between purity and impurity.I yearn for a spiritual cleansing in which all my faults will be erased and I will no longer feel so vulnerable. And yet all my attempts to live like that leave my humanity

Invitation to surrender

Oct 25th, 2018 29m 35s

This summer Sundara and I were shocked to discover that one of our dearest friends had cancer. Parabhakti is younger than us, and totally dedicated to his spiritual path and to the art of wellbeing.And yet the way that he faced his surgery, an

The Queen’s Awakening

Sep 25th, 2018 35m 33s

We have always needed to answer the basic human questions: “Who are we? What are we in the middle of? What does all this mean and where are we going?”These fundamental questions don’t go away because they are more or less unanswerable. We live

Reconnecting With The Web of Life

Aug 22nd, 2018 49m 52s

Quick note: My two intuitive storytelling trainings are already enrolling. If you’d like to learn Intuitive Storytelling with me this autumn check out this page.When I was eighteen I went on my first “Forest School Camp”. Over one hundred chil

The White Deer

Jul 17th, 2018 43m 47s

Even though we’ve been living in our new house for several months now, the noise of the nearby motorway can still bug me.And that itself intrigues me, because there’s always something. If it wasn’t the road noise, probably it would be somethin

Unveil Your Inherent Pleasure in the Infinite

Jun 21st, 2018 19m 4s

My wife Sundara has created a series of screen savers for us both, with pithy quotes from spiritual teachers we like, set against beautiful images. It’s nice to have my workflow interrupted by these reminders to stay present to the beauty of li

The Ill-Advised King

May 23rd, 2018 52m 19s

This time last year Sundara and I finally got the keys to our new house. We’d been waiting several months already but it had been worth it. We were buying not just a new home for our family, but also Jellyfish, a community art gallery and event