Creative work
I have been writing since I was a little girl, and so journalism school seemed a good fit. However, journalism was not the field of work that would eventually give me true joy.
Writing remained an important tool for me to figure out who I was and where I was going and much of my life I have kept a journal. After multiple pregnancy losses, as well as the birth of a beautiful baby son, I wrote Small Sparks of Life to honour the five sparks that were never born and the one beautiful spark that did!
Your Living City and Healthy Neurotics
Your Living City has been a wonderful collaborator on articles about expat and cross cultural life from a psychological perspective.
My Healthy Neurotics blog on Substack explores the world more from the kind of journeying that we do in the inner worlds.
Latest Blog - 29/12/2025
Up the waterspout again
Why New Year’s resolutions miss the point, but your inner compass doesn’t
In the children’s nursery rhyme, Incy Wincy Spider repeatedly climbs up the waterspout, only to be flushed out again and again by the rain. Then, when the sun comes out and “dries up all the rain”, Incy Wincy Spider climbs up the spout again.
At this time of year, we are all Incy Wincy Spiders. With the hustle and bustle of Christmas behind us, the New Year looms as an opportunity to make fresh resolutions. Despite knowing the rain will probably come and wash us out again, we look at the waterspout of life and optimistically say to ourselves: “I’m having another go.”
And why not?
What’s so wrong with making New Year’s resolutions?
Well.... I say: everything.
Facing the end of one year and the beginning of another, we turn the artificial ending of the Gregorian calendar into a watershed moment; intending to rekindle relationships, find new jobs, lose those kilos, or stop bad habits. And whether the rain comes on the 2nd of January or in the middle of March, we already know, from previous climbs up the waterspout, where these great intentions usually end.
It’s not that I have a problem with new beginnings. I just think we stand stronger if a new beginning is allowed to bubble up from deep inside, accompanied by the right attitude, strength, and perseverance. That moment does not arrive ……..
Aviva
By the late 1990’s I was struggling with multiple losses. And having not yet learned to deal with my emotions, I was anxious and scared. I didn’t understand why I had offended the gods so much?
The song cycle Aviva, inspired in the Swedish forests. slowly began to provide answers.
The question wasn’t, “why me?” but “why not me?”
Aviva means springtime. When I shared the songs with others, I was awarded the Margot Russel stipendium. We performed it with colleagues during the summer school in Sätra Brunn.