I live in the North Pennines, where I write, think, and walk, usually with a notebook in my rucksack. I’m a poet and a philosopher who prefers his walking boots, kitchen table conversations, and the quiet company of the fells, to the ivory towers of academia.
This Substack is the natural next step after finishing my book In the Becoming: Finding Meaning in an Unfinished World. That book explored the shape of belief and the way meaning threads itself through our lives, even when we think it’s gone. This new project builds on those ideas, it’s more personal, more conversational, and open to the back-and-forth of kitchen table conversations.
Why does this place exist? Because I believe it matters to talk about the wonder and value of believing in something - in God, in mystery, in the sense that life has depth beyond what we can measure. In a world where it’s all too easy to slip into the pit of “nothing matters,” I want to offer another way: a space to pause, to breathe, to wrestle with questions and to rest in them too.
If you join me here, you won’t find a list of rules. You’ll find reflections, stories, and questions. And hopefully, you’ll find a renewed sense that life is worth living with eyes and heart wide open.
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