I have nothing to write. It’s a bit like being stuck at a railway station when your train is cancelled. You’re used to jumping on an idea and riding the bumpy journey until you get off – or are thrown off – at a random narrative juncture. Instead your muse didn’t show up today, now … More Nothing to write
While I’m currently reading 12 Rules for Life by the internet’s current favourite controversial intellectual, Jordan B. Peterson, I thought I’d share my (perhaps rather less weighty) 6 rules for life: Only drink coffee between the hours of 9am and 1pm. Tea may be drunk between 6am and 9am, and again between 1pm and 6pm. Colds are … More My 6 rules for life
Scraping in by a mere three hours, I just finished reading my tenth book of 2017, crawling over the double-figures marker exhausted, bug-eyed and ready for bed. It’s been a crazy year and, apart from anything else, being a father seems an entirely reasonable excuse for letting my reading get on the back burner. Still, … More The 10 books I read in 2017
I recently had fun recording a song which I originally wrote on the day our daughter turned 6 months old. Today, she’s a rampaging 21-month old, but back then, on 21 July 2016, she turned 6 months old, and I wrote a song. I’d always wanted to write a song for her, but probably owed … More New song with lyric video!
I love Tom Wright’s simple, cheerful response to the question about balancing life in the video below (at right about the 1-hour mark): “I get up very early, say my prayers, and do the next three things that have to be done.” Which for Tom Wright happen to include putting right centuries of Pauline scholarship, … More The next three things
I found some words at the bottom of the garden – Slimy, squirmy and more – I took those words, hastily squiggled, And shoved them in a jar. I tried to catch some fish with them – Slippery, silvery and wet – But those tired adjectives didn’t make good bait, Left me angling in regret. … More Wiggly Words
Then leaving Summer’s sandy shores Now beckoned by the breeze We donned our jumpers, hats and boots And entered Autumn’s eaves. Into the whisper, rustle and crunch Adjusting to the cold Watched age and sunsets run like fire And light the world in gold. No bonfire night or fireworks Could near compare to this We … More Autumn’s Eaves (poem)
Isn’t it quite something That something came from nothing? That nothing could do something To make it all appear! But let me tell you something: Nothing can do nothing! We all have come from something – Ain’t that a quaint idea? So lay the heavy burden Of proof upon the person Who in some strange … More Nothing (A poem)
I’m reading Pat Pattison’s wonderful book, Writing Better Lyrics. One of the many, many great things about this book is its inclusion of useful exercises to do as you go along. I have devotedly set aside a notebook for the purpose; it lives with this book, getting pig-eared and dog-chewed as I read and re-read … More Lyric writing: A window on a coffee shop
Or, “A helpful guide to the meaning of Bible translation acronyms” If you’re a newcomer to the world of the Bible and in particular are baffled, befuddled or generally bamboozled by the multitudinous proliferation of Bible translations out there (meaning: there are lots and you don’t know what they’re all about), then you’ve come to … More What does “NIV” stand for?
Ben David Trigg 