Browsing category: Gratitude

01 Nov 2015

Nostalgia

By Cal McDonnell / No Comment

One of my favourite writers is the Danish story teller, Karen Blixen. She wrote under the pen name of Isak Dinesen (amongst other names), and I love her stories (like Seven Gothic Tales and Babette’s Feast). Her most famous novel is Out of Africa and the iconic line, “I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills …” has echoed in my brain since first reading it and then hearing Meryl Streep annunciate those Danish-accented words in the movie of the same name. Blixen’s life fascinates me and when I was fortunate enough to

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25 Sep 2015

Atonement

By Cal McDonnell / No Comment

This week marked the start of the Jewish New Year with Yom Kippur falling on Wednesday. Yom Kippur is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar and is also known as the Day of Atonement. A common greeting that you may hear Jewish people sharing at this time is, “May your name be inscribed in the Book of Life.” This language imagines God as judge, sitting on the divine throne of justice, reviewing our deeds. On a table before God lies a large book with many pages, as many pages as there are people in the world. Each of us has a

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04 Sep 2015

It’s All in the Timing

By Cal McDonnell / No Comment

I remember back in the 1980's  there was a TV series called Dallas. I was a huge addict and had a crush on Pammy Ewing but also secretly loved Sue Ellen Ewing because she was a booze-addled victim repeatedly drawn back to the vodka. The producers of this series probably kept Dallas running for 2 or 3 sessions too long. The plot became more and more clichéd and in the end most people just stopped enjoying the program. There is a danger when we stay involved in things in the same way for too long that we become hackneyed. The new

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19 Aug 2015

The Ineffable

By Cal McDonnell / No Comment

When I was an English teacher at a Jewish Day school in Johannesburg, I taught a lot of Shakespeare and a considerable volume of Victorian poetry. Both these categories of literature make a lot of reference to God, and in particular a Christian version of God. In their essays and assignments, I noticed a lot of my students would write the word God with the ‘o’ missing – G_d. It confounded me, and initially, I used to put a question mark in red pen above the word. I thought it was a quirky way to imply a ‘What the…?’ kind of

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11 Jun 2015

Lighting Up Lives

By Cal McDonnell / No Comment

Have you ever experienced someone’s whole being lights up because of something you said to them or did for them? It’s an incredibly powerful human skill to be able to transform someone’s entire being through your actions or words. I had this experience first hand and indirectly on a couple of occasions over the last few days. My son is a consistent high C /low B grade student. Now, I’m okay with that except for this niggling feeling I have that he’s not operating at his full potential. He has coasted very close to a D for

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04 Jun 2015

Where to find love

By Cal McDonnell / No Comment

I love it when I encounter something new. This week a new word introduced itself to me. I was reading one of my twitter feeds and came across an article in The Age talking about a condition known as alexithymia. It’s a personality condition characterised by the inability to identify and describe emotions in the self. People ‘suffering’ from alexithymia lack emotional awareness and have challenges in social attachment and interpersonal relationships. They struggle to distinguish and appreciate the emotions of others which causes

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18 Jul 2014

What am I generous with?

By Cal McDonnell / No Comment



Quote of the Week "I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense." - Harold S. Kushner

This week’s challenge Firstly I’d like you to watch this video: 60 Seconds That Will Change How You Think! shar.es/NXtGF. It’s a really interesting observation about humanity and it causes me to think about what I am generous with and what do I hold onto (with what am I selfish) After watching this video ask yourself: What am I generous with in my

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30 Jun 2014

Higher Consciousness

By Cal McDonnell / No Comment

The term ‘higher consciousness’ is often used by spiritually-minded people to describe important but hard-to-reach mental states. Hindu sages, Christian monks and Buddhist ascetics all speak of reaching moments of ‘higher consciousness’ – through meditation or chanting, fasting or pilgrimages. Unfortunately, the way in which these spiritual people discuss their states of higher consciousness has a tendency to put a lot of secular types on edge. It can all sound maddeningly vague, wishy washy, touchy-feely – and, for want of a

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