Shopping and the perfect world
“Hi, I’m Rebecca, and I’m a shopaholic!” This line, along with the character, though from a comedy released in 2009, is cut from the fabric of everyday reality. Shopping has become an indispensable appendage of modern life. However, when it ceases to be just an accessory to a much more complex existence and moves to the centre of an individual’s focus, the leap...
Trust, the resource of intelligent people
In a study published in the journal PLOS One, researchers came to the counterintuitive conclusion that people with higher intelligence have higher levels of generalised trust.
Book review: Juice
In my humble but literary-educated opinion, Tim Winton is Australia’s finest living novelist. Since winning publication of his first novel in a competition for young writers in 1981, he has had 10 more novels published, as well as collections of stories, plays, books for younger readers and a handful of non-fiction works. Winton has won Australia’s top literary prize—the Miles Franklin Award—on four...
Depression is becoming increasingly prevalent among younger age groups
Just two and a half decades ago, depression and other mental health disorders were virtually unknown among children and were often ignored.
The gospel of consumerism: How shopping became our church
"When I could not decide between two shirts, they encouraged me to buy both." This is a line from the postmodernist novel "White Noise", written by Don DeLillo. This way of thinking encapsulates one of the defining features of consumerism: the idea that more is better.
What do you do when you reach the end of love?
When I'm tired I can't love! Many times I have lived this reality and even assessed it as the exact end of love.
More than just one thing
If you were asked to describe who you are, what would you highlight first?
Forgiveness heals the one who forgives
Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea until he has something to forgive. – C.S. Lewis
Give a little, change a lot
Seeing a team care for remote villages in the Solomon Islands showed me how small donations can make a real big difference.
Planted—and growing
One of the most overused metaphors for our human experience of life is that of the journey.
How I discovered my questions while searching for answers
Five seconds. And everything smells of heaven, wet grass and happiness.
How to manage “good debt” and “bad debt”
Almost half of Romanians are in debt, while 39% say that they don’t pay their debt on time, and 29% never create a budget. These figures, based on the most recent national studies, reflect Romanians’ values and financial literacy, but they can also represent the starting point of a conversation about "good debt" and "bad debt."
“Boundaries: When to say yes, how to say no to take control of your life” | Book review
As Christians, we learn that we must offer love and devote ourselves to the needs of those around us. However, in life, there are times when we feel overwhelmed by what others ask of us. We feel that some people take advantage of us—our kindness, our time, or our availability. We would like to refuse certain people or tasks that are assigned to...
Everyone goes through a midlife crisis. True or false?
Up until she was 49 years old, Sue Shellenbarger had been happy with her life. She had a nice home in Oregon, USA, and a good job as the Wall Street Journal's work and family columnist. However, in the space of just two years, she had divorced her husband, emptied out her bank account, and developed a real passion for adventure that landed...
