I hadn’t expected Auschwitz to be such a tourist destination. It was a grey and sombre Friday in November yet, apart from the absence of those ubiquitous key ring vendors, it felt as touristy as the Eiffel Tower. Groups of teenagers on school trips flirted loudly with each other and dropped litter. Coach loads of…
This time last year, I marked my birthday with a blog post entitled ‘Help! I’m older than Jesus’. Now, one year older and still here, I marked it with a decision to stop going to events aimed at people in their 20s/30s. Well, that, along with a fun birthday dinner with some quality people.…
(Originally published here on openDemocracy) In the past 5 years, over 500 young people who migrated as lone children have been removed after spending their formative years in the UK. We have a responsibility for their long term safety and flourishing, says Emily Bowerman. A couple of weeks ago, a 19 year old girl called Yashika…
It’s been a busy month with no time to write, so I’m migrating some old posts across from another blog that I thought I’d have the capacity to write as well. That was optimistic. This one was originally published on Breathe, a Christian network for simpler living. Enjoy! It started off so well. Two…
“That must be so rewarding,” she said in response to my description of what I do for a living, her face reflecting both a glimmer of genuine interest and an absence of common ground within which to ask follow-up questions. Although I’ve heard that line a billion times, it always prompts an involuntary defensive shudder,…
I am now officially older than Jesus. Well, of sorts. I’ve just had a birthday which has nudged me one year closer to oldness and means I’ve now been on the planet longer than Jesus was. I can’t help but feel that he achieved a bit more than I’ve done to date. And if that’s…
Greenbelt was where I’d hoped to be last weekend. Sitting eating Goan Fish Curry in the balmy afternoon sunshine, sipping chai in the Tiny Tea Tent from an unhygienic mug, listening to Shane Claiborne inspire me to live in community, and bumping into random people who I hadn’t seen for years. Instead, due to the…
I was so desperate to leave church by midday but couldn’t work out why. I sent round a flurry of texts hoping to find at least one friend who was actually in London. Someone who required minimal effort, who was fun to be with, who could cheer me up, and who got me. Thank goodness…
A woman in North Dakota, no longer waiting ‘for someone to complete me’, has married herself, according to this column in the Guardian. Her wedding to her ‘inner groom’ is a move that is celebrated, albeit with a healthy dose of cynicism, by the columnist who is ‘always cheered to hear that anyone has learned…
Friends in high places made the Jubilee flotilla much more fun and much less wet. By friends in high places, I mean Harriet and her first floor office in County Hall by Waterloo Bridge which gives us all fantastic views of the boats going past. I put on the earrings I’ve made for the occasion…
emilyintheworld 