Oxford | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Failing Better: A New Year’s Resolution, of sorts

Anita Mathias — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 20:58:18 +0000

Christ Church, Oxford University Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. Samuel Beckett So it’s a New Year…2017. I love this hopeful period of looking back on the past year, and considering how to revise my life in the new year. I love its promise, a sheet of new fallen […]

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Burn-Out Vanishes When We Rediscover Purpose

Anita Mathias — Mon, 19 Dec 2016 22:25:52 +0000

When I blogged regularly, which I did for six years, I felt more alive, more alert, more attentive to my life, and what God was doing in it. In Frederick Buechner’s phrase, I listened to my life. I have taken a six month blogging break, and the peril of blogging breaks (or writing breaks: […]

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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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England: A Rhapsody

Anita Mathias — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 10:48:29 +0000

I love England. I have now lived for at least 14 years each in three continents–Asia, America and Europe. If I could live anywhere I chose, I would choose England (as I have). (And if I could choose any English town to live in, I would choose Oxford–as I have.) As I walked down the […]

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It was like a Church to me: Port Meadow, Oxford, at Sunset

Anita Mathias — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 17:40:54 +0000

I walked last night on Port Meadow. An extraordinary experience! The blazing ball of sun slowly floated into the Thames, colouring it crimson. An amazing natural event I have too often missed! Spectacular beauty lavished on anyone who would take a few minutes to observe it. Wild geese arrived honking, with a beating of wings, settling […]

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Sheridan Voysey’s “Resurrection Year”: A Book Review

Anita Mathias — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 17:26:40 +0000

On Broken Hearts, Dashed Dreams and Resurrection Years Last June, Sheridan and Merryn Voysey told us their story over dinner—ten years of infertility, IVF, and stalemated adoption (ten years which coincided with the success of Sheridan’s radio programme in Sydney) after which they settled in Oxford, seeking resurrection. I’ve enjoyed reading Sheridan’s new book Resurrection […]

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Walking Away from the Dreaming Spires; Walking Away from Joy

Anita Mathias — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 22:26:59 +0000

When C. S. Lewis went up to Oxford for his entrance interview, he accidentally walked away from the golden, gleaming, dreaming spires towards the "mean", grimy suburb of Botley. He sees that as a metaphor for his whole life until he became a Christian--choosing the second-rate instead of the most beautiful, most noble, most golden!

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The Poet, the Albatross and the Christian

Anita Mathias — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:48:11 +0000

The Albatross […]

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Choristers on May Morning, William Holman Hunt

Anita Mathias — Sat, 01 May 2010 16:37:00 +0000

Choristers at dawn on Magdalen Tower on May Morning–a tradition which still continues today!

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A Walk Through University Parks, Oxford

Anita Mathias — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 21:11:00 +0000

Lovely family walk yesterday. (Okay, lovely after dragging out daughters who would rather read, do homework, or commune with their computers). We walked through the University Parks from Magdalen College to Norham Gardens where I used to live as a student at Oxford. It was a Bridehead Revisted set, complete with amusing poseurs with […]

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