Making Friends with Ourselves: Introducing Children to Meditation
A Colouring-Workbook
Illustrated by Alixandra Marschani
ISBN: 9781847477309
Out of print - secondhand copies may still be available
 

For A4 size illustrations to print please click here

This book will help to:

• improve attention, clarity & awareness
• encourage co-operative relating, honesty & trust
• weave more stillness into the school day
• establish relaxation times amid holiday & weekend activities
• use car journeys, bath-times & in-between times creatively
• prevent the build-up of ‘overload’ & negative emotions for 7-11 year olds
• Introduction for adults explains the importance of meditation in a child’s life
• 20 exercises, with clearly defined Purpose/Focus
• Suggestions for Additional Activities

Naming: Choosing a Meaningful Name

If you knew that Brendan means 'stinking hair' would you give your son that name? Barbara comes from the same root as the word 'barbarian,' implying 'a stranger - not one of us.' Would that stop you calling your daughter by that name? 

It occurred to me that if parents wanted to endow their child with a special attribute, they had to plough through a heap of Baby Naming Dictionaries. 'What if there was a dictionary indexed by meanings?' I thought. So I set about compiling one.

It took two years in the lovely round Reading Room of the old British Library where you were only allowed to write in pencil in the North Library, so precious were its books.

I was privileged to peruse (on microfilm, due to its fragility) the oldest naming book in the English language.

Available from:
www.hawthornpress.com

St. Aldhelm’s Well, Doulting
(self-published booklet)

Years ago I spent time with a dowser friend trekking across the Isle of Man in search of its sacred springs. I've always loved wells and once lived a stone's throw from the Upwey Wishing Well (the largest natural spring in the British Isles). St. Aldhelm, a radically eccentric and saintly bishop, intrigued me so I put together a little booklet about his healing spring in the village of Doulting. Published by the Journal of the Holy Wells (Source: Issue 2, Winter 1994) You can read 'The Divine Juggler of Doulting' here...

Photo of statue of St. Aldhelm: Sean Williams

Chalice Well - The Story of a Living Sanctuary

Contributed chapters on Alice Buckton and Water

Writing about Alice Buckton (with whom I share a birthday) was a delight, taking me into the world of the Victorian 'hilltop' Surrey writers and the avant-garde 'Avalonians' who first put Glastonbury on the map.

My research unearthed a work of Ms. Buckton's not recorded in her extensive archive at the Chalice Well. 'A Catechism of Life,' an extraordinary little book of advice aimed to provide young people with healthy, balanced moral guidance and sound biological information, was written in 1912. One copy came to light in a UK library - at the Wellcome Institute, in London.

The chapter on Water was the most difficult project I've ever tackled - how do you summarise all there is to say about water in just one chapter?

Copies available for purchase from the Chalice Well website

Buddhist Reflections on death, dying and bereavement

Contributed chapter on Meditation

This book (to which I contributed the chapter on meditation) was sponsored by members of the Buddhist Hospice Trust and is sold as a fund-raiser. Read about the excellent work of this charity at www.buddhisthospice.org.uk