Lemonade Anemone

Sometimes, I can be a little impatient.  Ok, that’s an understatement. I am a very, very, very impatient person. But when it comes to books, I can sit and read all day, without ever getting bored.  The other day I was talking to a friend of mine – another impatient soul – and he said something that really struck me.  “I don’t like reading. It takes too long and it’s frustrating because they don’t tell you the answer straight away. It’d rather just sit near a book and have the ideas go directly into my brain.”  This is an interesting thought, isn’t it? In a world where we have every answer available to us online, at the click of a button, why would anyone bother to read? As technology improves and people have more options for research, entertainment, and relaxation, you might assume that books are falling out of fashion. But, 212 million books were sold in the UK in 2021 , which means that reading is still a big part of many people’s lives.  Of course, it might be frustrating trying to

This short story was part of a project by New Perspectives Theatre, and will be released as a podcast later in 2022.  *** Hope is the thing with feathers. The only thing with feathers around here is that battered old magpie who lives in the bushes behind the bus stop on the main road. Oil slick feathers shining sapphire blue, jade green, jet black. As capricious as the weather, or the price of bread and bus fares.  She’s my magpie, although she doesn’t know it. She’s always making a nuisance of herself, cackling like a badly-drained bath as she sifts for scraps in the gravel by the twitchell between the terraces.  There’s this old English rhyme about magpies. It’s at least three hundred years old, and it’s supposed to tell your future, based on how many birds you see in one place.  One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy. Five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret, never to be told.  My magpie seems pretty lonely, although she never tells anyone that. Inste

Earlier this week, I was sitting in the centre of town (doing my daily half hour of nothing ) when all of a sudden, a young motorbike courier hit a skiddy bit of road and went flying.  His bike went one way, he went the other, and both came crashing to a stop in the middle of the busy high street.  Now, if you believe the doomsday prophets of social media, you might expect this to be a story of social apathy. About how the poor lad was left in the road while pedestrians stepped over him, on their way to their important Monday afternoon business.  Luckily, real life isn’t like that, and as I ran over to check the lad was alright, I saw at least half a dozen other people coming to his aid as well. Two big middle-aged blokes wrestled the motorbike away from the tram tracks, while a lady in a headscarf and her daughter asked if the poor lad was ok. A man with gold teeth and a matching tracksuit volunteered a bottle of water, and a lady working at the nursery across the road brought a chair

I spend too much time on my phone. As soon as I wake up, I check Twitter, Instagram, emails, the weather, the news. I use mobile apps to track my reading habits, how far I've walked each day, how much sleep I've had each night. When I go to work, or to the supermarket, or when I take the bus to town to meet friends, I'm always listening to a podcast.  I crave stimulation.  Part of it probably comes from a need to 'feel busy'. I like being productive. I like using my time wisely. I always have a To Do list, and I feel deeply smug when I accomplish everything on The List. But, in my haste to Get Things Done, I don't often sit with my thoughts.  Being 'chronically online' means I bear witness to so much information, but I retain very little of it. I have no time to process or reflect on anything, and being in constant motion is really starting to have a negative effect on my mental health.  I also have a lot of trouble with intrusive thoughts, and I often c