Writing.
I write about life, work, people and place. Expect oversharing. Here are some of my most popular essays from my newsletter, The Primordial Scoop.
Readers Say
“I loved reading this and so much resonated. Keep it coming!”
“I just want to saw you are awesome! I'm so inspired by your commitment to your writing and humbled by your talent.”
“I felt this newsletter in my soul.”
“Thanks again for another brilliant, truthful and insightful essay.”
“It's great to read media that feels like it connects people and I just wanted to say that your posts are a sublime example (and an inspiration) of that, and I'm very grateful.”
“So well written and insightful. I feel SEEN.”
“I love the honesty, depth and humour in your writing - thank you so much for doing it!”
She Cried for Five Years
After a two-week hiatus I’m back, writing to you from the other side.
We moved. House, city. Life.
We had no internet, intermittent childcare and the emotional heaviness affected everyone - and I’m including the cat in that statement.
Unbraiding Sweetgrass
“Hold out your hands and let me lay upon them a sheaf of freshly picked sweetgrass, loose and flowing, like newly washed hair...Breathe it in and you start to remember things you didn’t know you’d forgotten.”
Robin Wall Kimmerer, ‘Braiding Sweetgrass’
Stop Waiting. Start Being.
Waiting to take action is actually one of my crummiest qualities, along with self-righteousness, inconsistency and all those failed attempts to stop drinking in the week.
Waiting for Friday night. Waiting to lose weight so I can buy jeans again. Waiting for the children to grow. Everything is just waiting.
Do You Love Your Work? Part Two! ❤️
Take a space walk between your deeply-held attitudes towards employment and the outer galaxy of important work that does more than build value for shareholders.
You don’t have to be in an ashram to start imbibing your very important human existence with meaning, in big ways and small.
Do You Love Your Work? I’m Really Asking
Do you love your work? My father was a taxi driver. My mother did different things but mainly shop work for the last decade of her working life. Did they love it?
The notion of loving your work is a modern one, that marks a certain privilege.
“She’s All Right, But the Goldfish is Dead.”
My brother Declan is five years older than me. He is a journalist, and has lived in London, New Zealand, Istanbul, Athens and now Abu Dhabi.
He lives like an International Man of Mystery.
He is always posting pictures from amazing cities and no one ever knows who takes them. Who does take those pictures? “A friend.”
You’ll Need a Machete Where We’re Going.
This week I had a long conversation with someone I haven’t seen since March, but have known and loved for 15 years.
We talked about work, money, depression, property, pets, children, parents, Ireland, the Cotswolds, gardening and diets. This was all in under 90 minutes. You know how it is with old friends.