Connecting The Dots
After a busy decade of getting married in California, moving to London, having kids and getting established, I was uniquely given the lovely birthday gift of an aeroplane ticket to visit my parents in San Francisco – all by myself! It was the strangest yet most wonderful of moments being able to travel without anyone asking for snacks, toilet breaks, or colouring books throughout the … Continue reading Connecting The Dots
Garden Lessons – Part Two
This week, England experienced a heat wave and I have loved seeing our happy sunflowers delighting in the continuous sunshine! Having grown them from mere seeds in an egg carton, it’s so encouraging to see them shining out their joyful presence in our garden. With some of the dead flower heads removed, I have been drying them out to save the seeds for the next … Continue reading Garden Lessons – Part Two
Garden Lessons – Part One
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:18-19 Our local grocery store sells some lovely plants and often I enjoy picking a random one up and adding it to our garden. As … Continue reading Garden Lessons – Part One
Thanksgiving In August
Yes, I know what you’re thinking, American Thanksgiving in August? Don’t I mean November? My answer this year is yes to both! We celebrate every fourth Thursday in November, like all Americans I know in America and abroad, but this year we had an incredibly special reason to celebrate a second Thanksgiving: my parents came to visit us! After three long years since experiencing our … Continue reading Thanksgiving In August
Slow Growth Is Still Growth
Have you ever started to recognise a behavioural pattern within yourself? And in certain circumstances, you keep reacting the same way? Over the last weeks, I’ve noticed an unexplainable pattern of anxiety brewing deep inside of me every time I drive to my children’s school to collect them. I’ve tried praying before showing up at the school gate, having a snack to make sure I … Continue reading Slow Growth Is Still Growth
Time With Grandma
Although written a couple years ago, this is a tribute to honour my Grandma for her 94th birthday! She is doing well and reminds me that each day or year we have is precious. We should cherish every moment we have on planet earth. Hot buttered rice, chats around the kitchen table, playing Yatzee, almond cookies, watching figure skating, seeing animals at the pet shop, … Continue reading Time With Grandma
Flexibility Towards Interruptions
I wrote this article just weeks before the first March 2020 coronavirus lockdown. Little did I know then how important it would be to stay flexible towards interruptions over the last year! The last three weeks have seen health interruptions in our family. Our son Luke contracted conjunctivitis (pink eye) which made him a bit miserable but still able to function. The week after, he … Continue reading Flexibility Towards Interruptions
Don’t Panic
It was five past three and things were happening right on time. I collected my son from his gate at school and then we circled around the school to collect my daughter from her gate. Walking with friends and holding lunchboxes, a book bag, backpack and water bottles, I forgot I was also holding my car keys. By the time we crossed the road near … Continue reading Don’t Panic
The Friendliest Person I Know
When I think about people being genuinely kind to each other, the absolute friendliest person I know is my dad. Always smiling and chatting, he’s the type of individual that really gets to know people. In the town I grew up in, he can walk into the local bank and say, “Hello!” to the majority of bank tellers by first name. When he was still … Continue reading The Friendliest Person I Know
Everything British
This reflection was written the night before my British citizenship ceremony in 2018 and captures so many of my thoughts with submerging myself into my husband’s culture and what it means to gain a new identity. And a Happy Birthday to our Queen Elizabeth II for her public celebration on Saturday! Tonight is my last night to be just American, for tomorrow, I take an … Continue reading Everything British
Joy A. Mead 