The thread of love (i)
This lovely metaphor for love is from a fine story of it by Mary Webb. I found this quotation around the same time as another by a quite different writer, Saint-Exupery, which similarly refers to the weaving strands of love.I thought maybe love was like that – a...
Head gardener
A marvelous way to describe the magic-makers of the world, whether they grow their gardens in writing or any other medium. People from whose heads paths lead to sunny cities! Do you know anyone this could describe? I can only think of a few people with this quality,...
These days of September
A surprising insight by the author of All Quiet on the Western Front. You will never see this month the same way again, here proposed as a metaphor for a stage of life, the ninth month of a lifespan of twelve.  So many fine aspects of a human existence, including...
A mansion of many apartments
I found this expansive metaphor for life moving, particularly coming from a man who grabbed as much of it as he could before it was snatched from him by illness and premature death. It also struck me as a suitable response – or riposte – to a question...
On irrigating the world
The idea and experience of time, as an enabler or a constraint in living life to the optimum, is a recurring theme in my mind. Lack of time is one of the curses of our time, despite all the bits of kit we’ve created or loaded up on ostensibly to free up more of...Yes, sign me up!
