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Do you smell?

Do you smell?

I ask that question with the best intentions possible. Let me start here with perfume. The really expensive brands are strong; one spray of perfume or cologne will do you for a while. But then there's the cheapo, knock-offs or body sprays that linger just an hour, or even less. .

  • Throw out your Purity Ring

    Humans will make symbols out of anything. Symbols are a potent way to interpret reality; we use them to communicate to each other and to define ourselves. In the Christian sub-culture there is one symbol that is readily understandable to almost anybody who has spent more than a week or two amongst teenagers these days: The Purity Ring.

  • Am I good enough?

    I'm having one of those weeks when I feel like I'm not good enough to complete anything that I have been asked to do. For four weeks I have been trying to figure out what I should write for this space.

  • Are you Googling your life away?

    Dear Google, who art in \'the cloud\', hallowed be thy name.

  • The choice to be miserable

    2013 can only be described as a year of change. Change in the way that I haven't expected or anticipated. Change in the way that I would rather it hadn't happen. Change in the way that is completely out of my control.

  • You are alive

    In the finite number of human beings who have or do or will exist, you are one of them. You made it, you're here.

  • Surprised by Boredom

    I Got 99 Problems and Being Bored Ain\'t One

  • "Children can teach us many things" – um, Like What?

    I often get asked what parenthood has taught me - about myself and about life. It's a very difficult question. Usually I give a light-hearted answer about the fact my daughter has taught me that time goes scaringly fast - how is it that my baby with the big floppy head is now 2 and a half and doing gymnastics and knows the alphabet!

  • Loving others: Treating and thinking of others as better than ourselves

    Philippians 2 verses 4 3. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

  • Significance in Life

    A long time ago, and in a land very far away from here, there once lived a King. With a lot of time on his hands, and perplexed about the meaning of the life he had landed himself in, he embarked upon a quest to discover if an individual life could have any objective significance at all. After all his various musings he concluded, that in the end, we all go back to the place from whence we came, from dust we came, and to dust we return.

  • What do we really need?

    Veruca Salt, one of the not-so-sweet characters in Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was famous for demanding whatever she wanted. Her indulgent parents didn't know what to do, especially when they couldn't comply. The result? A foot-stamping, arms failing out-of-control tantrum.

  • The Olympic strain felt

    There is something truly remarkable about The Olympic Games. As a child I remember the wonder and excitement of watching our country compete against the world. I don't know whether it was because I loved seeing all the nations march around the stadium as one, or seeing the joy of the athletes, but even as an adult I am still inspired and equally as excited by this international sporting event.