Nothing sums up the Trump administration more decisively than their illegal killing of a woman with the surname "Good".

On Trump's designs on Greenland and the spirituality of lament as articulated by a martyred African priest - my Thought for the Day on BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast today - text below or listen about 1:20 in (0720 hours, 8 Jan) at: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand...

Coming soon - Dunfermline Foodbank Assistant Manager - one year fixed term - 20hrs per week - £15.7k @trussellscot.bsky.social Opportunity to help manage and lead committed volunteers as we seek to alleviate hunger, put food on the table, restore dignity and revive hope to local people in crisis

Doubt is unsettling to the ego, and those who are drawn to ideologies that promise the dispelling of doubt by proffering certainties will never grow. In seeking certainty they are courting the death of the soul.~James Hollis

This explains so much. People with psychopathic traits and low cognitive ability are over-represented in online political activity. If someone is being cruel, obnoxious and ridiculous, don't try to reason with them. Chances are you won't get anywhere. Just block. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A new podcast interview with me just out here with the folks who run Beshara magazine - this on “Climate, Community & the Survival of Being” looking at the spiritual challenges and basic call to consciousness of our times. Audio and transcript. besharamagazine.org/podcast/alas...

This is just the best thing. Traffic Scotland have a “Gritter Tracker” gizmo for all the gritters out salting icy roads - and they’ve all got names that’s a right hoot. www.traffic.gov.scot/gritter-trac...

"I have seen the sea when it is stormy and wild; when it is quiet and serene; when it is dark and moody. And in all its moods, I see myself." Martin Buxbaum

Hey folks. I just got a letter from Nigel. He signed his name with a wee cross after it➕like a Catholic bishop, and that made me pay attention. I’ll not be wasting the Freepost envelope. I’ll be sending it back with one of my wee cards of the Beattitudes (or blessings) of Jesus.

For me, having been shown by a friend how to read a poem when in my 30s, her most important lesson was that you don’t have to try and understand it all. Let the cadences of the words flow over you. Ponder where they leave you. Read a poem more like you’d view a picture: it’s not a scientific paper!

"It is no coincidence that when communities own land one of their chief priorities is building housing and addressing local need – they act with purpose and speed to address the number one issue facing the local area."

There are only 3 spaces left in the week on "Hopeful Imagination" that I'll be leading at Iona Abbey with the Iona Community, 3 - 9 October 2026. It's fully residential, £870 or £435 concession. Book quickly if interested and I especially encourage low income concessions. iona.org.uk/event/hopefu...

I’m certainly not a royalist, but as a man Charles has rare spiritual depth - here quoting TS Eliot’s “Four Quartets” (the greatest mystical poem in the English language) as he testifies to life as a pilgrimage, interfaith, towards building *community* for Peace on Earth. www.cbc.ca/news/world/k...

Profound respect for retired army generals - Deverell, Graham, Currie & Herbert. And it’s part of military culture that retired officers often speak for those in active service who cannot do so. www.thenational.scot/news/2572310...

There are only 3 spaces left in the week on "Hopeful Imagination" that I'll be leading at Iona Abbey with the Iona Community, 3 - 9 October 2026. It's fully residential, £870 or £435 concession. Book quickly if interested and I especially encourage low income concessions. iona.org.uk/event/hopefu...

Well folks, this is not for the squeamish, but I always look out for "roadkill". 5 years ago, a pheasant. I made this video to teach the grandchildren 1 way to prepare it. I set it "private", but today daughter got a pheasant. Rewatching was such a laugh I've now made it public. youtu.be/NlEJcYj53p0

Astonishing! A sign of changing times, yearning for depth? A BBC super-ranking of the best music albums of 2025 makes No. 1 Rosalia’s “Lux” (Light). She told Billboard: “Each song is inspired by the story of a [female] saint. A main theme is not fearing.” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"Not since the ransacking of the Library of Alexandria have we witnessed such a wanton, intentional assault on scientific knowledge."

From an enormous collection of old postcards in the semi-outside bog at home of my old friends Jill & Bev Beavitt on Scoraig. There’s no road there. We got the ferry across and visited them recently after I’d been asked to give a talk in Ullapool on the next sea loch. Gatha suggests Indian origin.

Evening reflection. “Do not squander your life.”

🚘🐈‍⬛ Road accidents: sheep, pigs & goats are protected but not loved family cats: “The [government] statement also said the exclusion of cats was because the original law was brought in due to dogs and other animals being "working animals" rather than to protect domestic pets.” x.com/alastairmci/...

Commissioners of the @churchofengland.org to allow investment in UK companies that sell “military weapons systems, or small arms and ammunition for military and law enforcement”, and firms involved in nuclear weapons “to be reclassified as ‘investible’”. So much for gospel nonviolence. Merry Xmas!

Some astonishing wind flows in the NE Atlantic just now, and look at how the UK’s warm weather is sweeping straight up from the Spanish west coast. (Touch to move around the globe, tap for wind speeds and use 2 fingers to change scale). earth.nullschool.net#current/wind...

A friend saw this on Twitter/X. When he shared it on his Facebook page, he commented, "But let’s not kid ourselves that this stuff is just many miles away. Hard hearted attitudes to speaking other languages in Glasgow and hotels in Falkirk may lead us here in the future 😢"

I remember excitement in the late 1970s when salmon farming first appeared on the horizon as a crofting cottage industry. Since then, it has at least kept families on the land and sea. But if we can’t *regulate* for high welfare, we shouldn’t be doing it. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2567441...

The work of the mature person is to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and to be stretched large by them. How much sorrow can I hold? That’s how much gratitude I can give.~Francis Weller, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘌𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸

Josh Doble of Community Land Scotland: “This is not a fringe issue. Land reform touches upon all of our lives as we face housing shortages, rising food prices, growing inequality and ecosystem collapse.” www.thenational.scot/news/2566814...

"The #HockeyStick" | My recent conversation with #BBC's Hannah Fry for the "Uncharted with Hannah Fry" podcast: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Pope Leo in the Turkish city of Iznik (ancient Nicaea, of Christian Council fame), where he said: "We must strongly reject the use of religion for justifying war, violence, or any form of fundamentalism or fanaticism." www.bbc.com/news/article...

Here’s my sharing with the folks at St Ethelburga’s Centre for Recociliation & Peace in London last June. It includes an exploration of their stained glass window with this formidable woman, the verse “O pray for the peace of Jerusalem” … towards a healing of the nations”. youtu.be/mDLqmGe8Iy4?...

“Genocidal acts”, “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing” … “it gives me no joy whatsoever to use these words [but] what other words do you use” to describe the West Bank? “This is the actions of the Israeli state. This is not about Judaism.” - the Archbishop of York in Church Times

Scotland Futures: Future Voices", a publication just out yesterday from the Scottish Land Commission www.landcommission.gov.scot/downloads/69... See also the sister document "What we Heard": www.landcommission.gov.scot/downloads/69...

Few things I like better than when the Quakes and the Papes get it together over liberation theology! This is about Pope Leo’s “apostolic exhortation”, as appreciatively reported in the Quaker weekly. “It is not possible to separate the worship of God from concern for the poor.“

On “the co-opting of the cross” by the political right. But wait until they find that central to Christian theology is “the quartet of the vulnerable”: the widow (or bereaved), the orphan (or bereft), the “alien in your midst” (or refugee), and the poor. www.bbc.com/news/article...

AI too now, “footnotes to Plato”. @rokewood.bsky.social @alisonphipps.bsky.social

“Greene had turned on Trump over his refusal to release the Epstein files. What unfolded was both a lesson in authoritarianism, and how authoritarianism can be ended…. That’s when the master gets brought to heel, and the servant takes power” www.heraldscotland.com/politics/vie...

This is the kind of high animal welfare farming within which Scotland should distinctively position itself, and work to raise the level of the level playing field on which the industry operates. ⁦‪@JimFairliemsp.bsky.social www.bbc.com/news/article...

The Ceilidh on the Mount - serendipitous 70th celebrations on Ben Lomond. youtu.be/NHawtNR8Dao?...

Right. Whodunnit???

Vérène and I are heading up Ben Lomond, a wee quiet celebration of my 70th.

'Silence Through the Ages' Max Ernst, 1968 Oil on canvas The Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria

Creative Tension 2 – Communal Order and Individual Freedom There is a dynamic tension within the Quaker way between the spiritual freedom of individuals to follow their own leadings, and the need for an ordered community with discernible boundaries and a clear identity. The Quaker Faith, p.154.

This piece interests me as it suggests how Scotland can reclaim its historical reputation for managerial competence. If as reported by Donald Turvill, Lesley Hinds sought to “under-promise and over-deliver” in sorting out the mess with Edinburgh’s trams. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2561125...

I worked as a literacy tutor in the BSU, 1980-82. Very strong agreement

Apologies for being late to this news, but it seems we have found ourselves a Muslim gentleman that no one can find a reason to hate on. Doesn’t that feel grand! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Treating prisoners with human dignity - insights from the Barlinnie Special Unit and reducing the need to have prisons. My Thought for the Day today on BBC Radio Scotland. Can also be heard about 1:24 in (0723) at www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...