On Trend with Unbusy

Busyness has become a bit of a status symbol in our culture. Yet extreme busyness is not only detrimental to our inner life, it is also toxic to relationships. Some years ago, we enjoyed a week in New Zealand – about five days with some of our children and then two blessed days on our…

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Time, Energy, Attention — Three Words Every Marriage Needs

I recently had a delightful and thought-provoking meeting with Fr. Patrick Toohey from the Catholic Archdiocese of Perth.  During it he asked me what do I thought all relationships require?   The answer? An acronym: T.E.A. which stands for:  Time, Energy, and Attention — and according to Fr. Patrick, these are the three ingredients that every lasting marriage is built on. You can’t buy them, fake them, or borrow them. You can only choose…

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Blessed be the (Relationally) Poor

Embracing the Call to Love in an age of relational poverty.  Pope Leo XIV’s apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te (Latin: I have loved you, Rev 3:9), reminds us that faith and love for the poor are inextricably linked. He writes,   “We have to state, without mincing words, that there is an inseparable bond between our faith…

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A Real-World Advent

  Fasting from devices to make room in our hearts and homes      Halfway through a supermarket dash last week, Francine’s watch alarm began buzzing insistently – the pavlova in the oven was done. Reaching for her phone, realisation hit – her digital lifeline was still at home!   Juggling the imminent arrival of family for…

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The Honey-Do List Standoff

  How do you get your husband to do the household jobs you really care about? How to do you get your wife to stop nagging and micromanaging?    These are questions to which almost every couple across the globe can relate; the never completed ‘To Do list’ wives prepare for their ‘honey’ on the…

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The Gift of #staretime

A corporate leader in India recently made headlines by suggesting his employees should work a 90-hour week, quipping, “What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife, how long can the wife stare at her husband?”  His remarks sparked quite the reaction, with some couples posting photos of themselves…

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Attention Deficit Marriages

In a fast-paced world, our attention is a rare and valuable commodity. Is your marriage suffering from attention deficit? True confession: some evenings you’ll find us sitting on the couch with the TV playing and us both on our laptops or other individual devices. We know; it’s not particularly noble and we have a sense…

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From Valentine to Valen-TIME

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With St Valentine’s day approaching, couples everywhere are looking for ways to mark the day with romance. From love-struck dating couples to couples stressed out with kids, every one of us struggles to find time to… Just. Be. Together. Insufficient time together is one of the biggest contributors to relationship breakdown. Whether our relationship is…

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