Writing and Blogging | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Our Unique and Transforming Call and Vocation

Anita Mathias — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 12:07:45 +0000

We read in the Gospel of Matthew, that as Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. […]

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Writing and Prayer

Anita Mathias — Sun, 02 Dec 2018 20:33:28 +0000

“Writing and Prayer” was published in an earlier version as “Learning to Pray,” in The Christian Century, March 22nd, 2000. Reproduced in Religion Online, and many other places. This is from my book Wandering Between Two Worlds, available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com and Amazon.in * * * Writing and Prayer. We read about them, write about them, talk […]

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The 10 Most Read Posts of 2015 on Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias — Sat, 26 Dec 2015 21:45:52 +0000

Image credit This is the lazy liminal period between Christmas and New Year, time for a psychologically healthy Ignatian Examen of the previous year—the highs and the lows; what we did well occupationally, spiritually, physically and relationally, and what we utterly failed at…and why. Bloggers traditionally look at the previous year’s posts, and see what […]

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We Have Something to Learn, and Something to Teach at Every Stage of Life

Anita Mathias — Sat, 07 Nov 2015 12:48:44 +0000

So what should an actress in Britain’s most popular television show look like? Like this? Or this? Or this? * * * Being young and beautiful—one would consider that a sine qua non for an actress—but Dame Maggie, who has exchanged her youthful beauty for a face with character in every wrinkle, has the best lines in […]

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When Shackles become Wings: On Domesticity, Creativity, and Me

Anita Mathias — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 13:13:51 +0000

I was married 25 years ago, while in a Ph.D programme in Creative Writing at the State University of New York Binghamton. I had just earned a BA and an MA in English from Somerville College, Oxford, then an MA in Creative Writing from Ohio State University. My husband probably hoped for a traditional marriage, […]

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On Juggling

Anita Mathias — Sun, 08 Mar 2015 15:00:55 +0000

Irene, my 15 year old, has decided to become a master juggler. (I blame Baroness Susan Greenfield who told her class that juggling makes you clever). And now the air is full of the swish-swish-swish of juggling balls. And as for me, words and ideas which might have been sublime (one can always dream!) slip […]

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Goodbye to Everest

Anita Mathias — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 18:34:46 +0000

When I was six years old, I wanted to be the first woman to climb Everest. Well, I won’t be. That was Junko Tabei, a Japanese woman–a record which will forever be hers. And neither will be I be the oldest person to climb Everest. That’s Yuichiro Muira, who climbed Everest aged 80. Nope, not […]

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The Good Things of January

Anita Mathias — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 23:08:32 +0000

I’ve adopted Martin Seligman’s recommended habit of recording 3 good things about my day. Apparently, people who do this report being 25% happier within 3 weeks. I think it is true. I’ve often needed to scan my day carefully to see what was golden about it rather than nondescript. After a while looking for gold […]

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Anita’s Belated 2014 Christmas Letter and Early New Year Letter

Anita Mathias — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 19:59:44 +0000

Friends, Happy New Year!! May it be a year of blessing and happiness for all of us My Christmas letter has morphed into a New Year’s letter–which is kind of how my year went! 2014! What a year! Here it is: January—I win an all-expense paid competition to go to … Cambodia with Tearfund. Zoe gets […]

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In which Rest is an Essential Part of the Creative Process

Anita Mathias — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 11:25:31 +0000

The first chapter of Genesis explodes with creativity! God creates sun, moon and stars; banyans, baobabs and butterflies; macaws, mice and mastodons from a smile in his brain. He creates the world in exuberance because that is his nature. He is a Maker, a creator. And all of us are inherently creative, because we all […]

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