contentment | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

On Breaking the 22 Minute Mile, and Stumbling on Happiness

Anita Mathias — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 15:09:16 +0000

When I was 12 years old, I read Roger Bannister’s account of breaking the 4 minute mile, pushing himself to the outer limits of human possibility, “collapsing almost unconscious, like an exploded light bulb”. I was inspired–and astonished. Run a mile in four minutes. The thought of it still baffles me! I walked a mile […]

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On Razor-Blade Millionaires; the Moon on a Chain and Being Content with What you Have

Anita Mathias — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 18:11:00 +0000

I am listening to Gustave Flaubert’s A Sentimental Education on my iPod as I walk. It opens with a steamboat journey from Paris: “The hill on the right bank of the Seine dropped out of sight, and another one loomed closer on the opposite side. This hill was topped by trees dotted between bungalows with hipped […]

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In which I Got the Precise House I Prayed for, and when I see better, I will remain content

Anita Mathias — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:36:00 +0000

When we were house-hunting in 2005, I made a list of 10 things I wanted in a house. Some of them were fantasies, pipedreams, improbabilities. A detached study, ponds, at least an acre of garden, and since we were in England, stone walls, rambling roses. A stream around the property. And being a Christian, I […]

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