Category: Personal

I’m just back from a winter-sun holiday in Lanzarote. I swam in the sea, visited the volcanic vineyards, whooshed around the island on the back of a motorbike and ate some great tapas. It was fantastic – everything a holiday should be. And I did it all stone cold sober. A few years ago, a… Continue reading The lies we swallow about alcohol – by Jo Bega

Sweating and tired, I slipped off my backpack and slumped on the wooden pew. I sat looking at the stained-glass window in Bilbao Cathedral for an hour…maybe longer. Though I was physically still, my emotions continued the journey that had started the moment I began the Camino del Norte a couple hundred miles away. Wonder… Continue reading Confronting beauty & bulls**t on the road to Santiago – by Simon Dwight

The 19 November 2020 is indelibly etched on my mind as the darkest day in my life. It’s the day that my brother Stuart died by suicide at the age of 51.  Having just gone through another Christmas season without Stu (pictured on right), I would say that this has without doubt been the most… Continue reading Finding hope amid devastating grief – by Andrew Ryland

I took this photo while out walking my dog Claude, a couple of weeks ago. At first glance, it’s a pretty normal autumnal scene: an old tree, covered in lichen and ivy, surrounded by fallen leaves. But look closer and you’ll notice something extraordinary. The tree has a barbed wire fence, consisting of three separate… Continue reading What I learnt from the barbed wire tree – by Lucy Horitz

This post is adapted from a talk I gave recently for Homeless Link to a group of CEOs and senior managers who lead homelessness charities. In the winter 2014/15, I went through a difficult time in the charity I led.   We hit a crisis in one of our main residential services due to some… Continue reading Learning from difficult times: 9 lessons in leadership