It’s only a month since I suffered a small stroke, and I am still optimistic about ongoing improvement, but I have decided that the time has come to end this blog. Writing has become much more difficult (brain fog) and now brings more stress than I enjoy.
This farewell post is number 1129 – 50 per year for over 22 years – no-one will miss it more than myself – my weekly ritual. Our archive reflects that the most consistent theme over the years was the “doubletalk” of commercial banking – its drive to access and exploit the reputation of the third sector – the shameless monetizing of social impact
But both with myself and readers the most popular part of my weekly offering was the 250 word “intro” – a kind of rambling stroll among meaning and values. Around 500BC, the Greek playwright, Aeschylus summarized our key purpose on earth as “to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.” So far, I’ve not heard better.
My final privilege is to thank my readers – who are the motivation for any writing. On a practical point, some of you send a monthly donation towards costs – could you now please cancel this as I’ll be closing that account. Other readers send an annual donation and a couple of dozen kindred spirits send me encouraging emails. Your support for myself and the ideas I explored was of course private – but not from me. Whenever I tried to imagine who I was writing for, your names were as close as I got to a “home team.”
Keep the faith my friends
This is a real loss for me Lorenzo! And I know it will be for many others. All best wishes.
Thank you! I have enjoyed your posts so much. A great leveller for me in this confusing world. Wishing you all the best.
Dear Laurence, I’ll miss your blog for many reasons, useful information, great writing and handy links, but most of all I’ll miss the person I never met but feel I’ve known for years. Honest, reflective, smart and insightful. Can’t thank you enough for all the time and effort you’ve put in over the years. Wish you well for a stress free next – and maybe final chapter. Alil the best and thanks again, from one imperfect human to another xxxx
I am saddened to hear that Laurence and echo wholeheartedly the words of Cathy. Your writing has indeed inspired me and touched home often. I wish you speedy recovery and all the best for your new chapter.
Karen
Oh Laurence
Too many endings to cope with.
My heart is hurting and if you’re feeling better soon there is absolutely no shame in doing a come back gig!!! All the best celebrities do it!
Keep in touch ❤️❤️
Laurence you have brought a tear to my eye. You will be sadly missed. I too am feeling the effects of ageing and am having problems dealing with it. But you have lifted my spirits often over many years. I wish you all the best. Enjoy the rest of your life.
I hope you recover soon, Larry, as I will really miss your blogs. I always admire your writing and use of language, the hard work you put in reading significant and relevant work of other writers etc. The word ‘writer’ comes to mind as, in my retirement I started writing novels myself, I only wish I could use language as well as you – it surprises me that you haven’t chosen to write novels as I’m sure they would be very readable. As you may know, my daughter, Rachel, who often reads your blogs, is the director of Moniack Mhor, the writer’s centre in the Highlands, and I’m sure she feels the same way about your writing as do I. At age 78 I’ve recently gone back to almost full time employment as a duty social worker for children and families up in Dingwall – and, whilst I am really enjoying it, (that sounds a bit strange given the often grim circumstances of some of the clients), almost full time work has stopped me from having the freedom to think ‘outside the box’, which stops me from writing the next novel! I have always wanted to meet you face to face as your blogs are always so impressive – so I really hope you can get back to normal and feel better. (Hmm, that sounds a bit selfish – ie it’s more about my missing your blogs than being genuinely concerned about your welfare) – but you are right, so many people will be missing the blogs – so get off your arse and get back to it!!
Lovely to read that you are optimistic about ongoing improvement Laurence. And sorry that your weekly blog will no longer be arriving in my Inbox on Fridays – though both appreciate and understand why. I’ve greatly enjoyed your writing and followed up on many of the links you provided to read the work of others. Thank you for your wise words. And the faith will be kept. Very best wishes for the future x
Thank you Laurence,
Your words have been a tonic. I hope you will still be able to share them with those who you encounter day by day.
I’ll miss you.
Sue Hamilton
So sorry to read this Lawrence, this blog has been a welcome weekly source of information and pleasure over the years. However, all good things and that……..
Wishing you a full recovery, continued good health and a well deserved rest.
Best wishes,
Absolutely gutted for you but also the readers who took comfort, strength and guidance from your musings. Hopefully you will continue to get health back and may do an annual blog of thoughts.
Maybe could get one of those apps for speech to type but whatever take care of yourself. Hopefully to hear tales going forward.
Robin
Mantega la fe….Lorenzo gracias por todo y suerte con las aventuras as you always said!
We’ll miss you… you could always send odd blogs when the mood takes you…they’d be enjoyed all the more.
Estamos en la costa Blanca. Despues vamos a una boda en Ibiza…so we’ll raise a glass of agua con gas to yourself and wish you well.
Sorry to hear this Laurence but understandable, good wishes for the future,
Colin
Thanks for expanding my mind every Friday over the years. Get better soon.
Dear Laurence
Thank you so much for your blog. I first read it almost a decade ago when started working in the third sector and we all got the Senscot bulletin in our inboxes every Friday. Since then it’s been a weekly treat – one of the few (perhaps the only) thing I always read.
I hope your recovery continues well and that you’re able to enjoy your garden and the better weather.
Wishing you all the best
Debbie
Take care Lawrence
Your weekly email has been a source of strength and inspiration for me. The only such email I get that I read through everytime.
Thank you so much
Charlie
I echo Charles’ words totally. Thank you.
And thanks Charles for introducing me to some sane wisdom.
I have looked forward to your Friday blog for years. I will miss it and wish you all the best and a full recovery.
Jenny
Dear Lawrence,
Greetings from Cruden Bay … thank you so much for your weekly posts. I am so sorry they are coming to an end – you are an inspiration. Keep positive and keep sharing your important insights with the world …. ‘Miles to go before you sleep’ ….
All our best, The Bell Family
Laurence, your blog has been a source of interest and understanding for a good many years now and I’ll miss seeing it. All good wishes to you and thank you for your insight and good heart.
It was a pleasure to read your blog. So informative. I wish you well.
Roland
We’ve never met, Lawrence, but I’ve enjoyed reading your blog for many years. It’s been my weekly ritual as much as yours. Thank you for all the life-affirming wisdom you’ve shared over the years. Stay optimistic and continue sharing!
Thank you Laurence – always an inspiration – stay well, Diane xx
I’m sorry to hear this, Laurence. Thank you for the words and thank you for the stimulation of my curiosity.
Take good care of yourself.
Len
Yes, Laurence, wishing you all the best. I, too, will miss both your reflections and the interesting items that you consistently turned up
Thank you Laurence,
for a weekly connection to purpose and for taking the time to write this final blog.
I didn’t always read the whole thing, but I did always read the intro
Good luck with your next adventure
I will miss your blog very much but you have made the decision that is right for you and that’s how it should be, Lawrence. Wishing you a continued recovery and the very best for what is to come. Karell
Dear Laurence, I too will greatly miss your blog, it has been a weekly moment of clarity in an often confusing world. Best wishes, Richard
Many thanks for the blog, Lawrence. I have really enjoyed your weekly dose of optimism and you have led me to new writers and thinkers, not least some great poets. Best wishes for a full recovery from the stroke. Dave (Warwick)
Lots of us will miss these moments of reflection during the week. But glad you are making a positive choice for yourself.
Sorry to hear this is our last bulletin, I’ve been reading since the beginning, those lively early days of Senscot. We’ve all come a long way since then.
Thank you Lawrence for your insights information and humour. I’ll miss your refreshing views each Friday.
I wish you well and many happy hours in nature and your garden. Go well.
I have enjoyed reading your weekly posts – always thought-provoking.
They will be much missed.
Wishing you all the best.
Thank you for providing so much thought provoking stuff over the years
Just to thank you infor the fascinating insights.. You introduced me to many new ways of seeing our world. Wishing you all the best. Janet Davidson
Laurence. Thank you again from all of us. We’ll miss you, though no doubt you’ll still be around. Take care.
I’ll miss my weekly dose of Lawrence, but circumstances change. Love your writing. Thank you for making me stop and ponder. Very best wishes, Sandra
I have loved your musings over the years, Laurence and I will miss them tremendously. This month is bringing far too many endings. Wishing you a continued recovery and I hope to see you again soon. Keep well.
Ah, sorry to hear that. I’ll miss your thoughtful input into my Fridays. Thanks for all the past wisdom and useful links, and very best wishes for a full and fast recovery.
My best wishes to you Lawrence – and thank you for all your wisdom over the years
I so looked forward to opening your ‘lunchette’ on a Friday morning. Your stories and quotations touched my heart as well as my mind, encouraged me to think more deeply, sometimes about subjects I did not want to ponder. We’ve never met, but I miss you already.
Sending you much love and gratitude Laurence, both for your beautiful and thoughtful writing and wise, carefully curated, observations. You have made a big social impact in my life and no doubt many others too.
With kindest regards
Linda Damerell
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, perceptions, values, mindfulness and kindness. I wonder if you realise just how appreciated you are. All good wishes to you.
I’m also very sad to hear your news – both about your health and your decision to stop writing. Your musings have been an ever present joy and a challenge to me since I entered the Social Enterprise world almost 20 years ago. I’ll miss your writing very much. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Dear Laurence, it’s been a real pleasure and a privilege to ruminate – duly inspired by your output and references! – on the quite magnificent, and sadly often heinous aspects of human society. Yet a recurring theme is hope and perseverance, a legacy you have instilled in so many. Just like your hardy perennials, my friend, may you thrive and continue to blossom. Thank you.
So sad, you have kept me going, helping me focus on what is important. I loved your stories of travelling too. Hope you recover, enjoy the sun, your garden and your neighbours x
Thank you Laurence for such inspiring writing. Have learned so much from what you have shared both personal and from the other philosophers of the ages. Such a tremendous contribution.
Hope you are recovering.
Thanks Laurence. Good luck with your recovery and thank you for the inspiration. I’ll miss your words and thoughts greatly. Best wishes. Ron.
Many Thanks Laurence! I’m sure I’m not the only person who will miss your weekly take on the social enterprise sector and wder issues. All good things come to an end, happy gardening, and enjoy your summer! Rod
I will miss the Friday blog Laurence. Like others I admire your writing style immensely. But I am so pleased to hear you are improving. A presto! Glenys
Dear Laurence,
Proof indeed, if proof were needed, that all good things come to an end.
All of us involved in this movement over the last couple of decades, owe you an enormous debt of gratitude.
You’ve kept us motivated and informed but have also “kept us honest” in our approaches and motivations towards the work, and this influence will be greatly missed.
I don’t see a natural successor, and so we may need to continue in the absence of our very own social enterprise “John the Baptist”
(like you, I can’t quite jettison the Catholic upbringing).
I wish you a speedy recovery and a return to your garden which has clearly given you so much pleasure.
Take care and we’ll keep the faith.
Your big mate Down Under.
Jim
Wish you well with recovery – and send the very best wishes. I will miss your blogs. They have been something for me too look forward and have gained comfort as well as knowledge from them. Christine x
Dear Lawrence, my heart lifted when I saw a new blog today and sank when I read it was your last. Thanks for your emotion and weekly wisdom.
Laurence, your weekly references and musings have enriched my knowledge and understanding over many years, but clearly it’s best for you to call a halt now. So all I can say is very many thanks for all your efforts, and best wishes for a healthy and peaceful future.
It was never hard to make time to read your posts. A weekly treat of news, enquiry, humour and humanity.
Thank you
Laurence, sending much love. Your blogs have brought much learning and have provided smiles on days of frustration as well as a healthy dose of reality on days when I’ve lost sight. We are all so very grateful for the work you have done over the years to bring us knowledge from a range of source. Xx
Dear Laurence,
Like all those above I have greatly appreciated your posts – the insight , thoughts and access to reading that I would otherwise have missed. Thank you.
Two things occur to me .
Something is better than nothing. Perhaps when you’re well recovered ( I’m concentrating on “ small” stroke ) you might like to do something less ambitious or different . A podcast ?
Also, I wondered about a succession plan. Could anyone be found who would take up the mantle ( in whatever form) and when you’re feeling up to it get a bit of mentoring from you ?
Be a lovely legacy in ,hopefully , 🤞🤞the distant future.
Anyone got any ideas of how to achieve that?
Clearly, though the most important message we can all send is – look after yourself – get well and thank you.
Carpe diem.
Maria x
Strewth! I’ll miss you on a Friday. It helped me believe the world could be a better place. I’ll have to try harder. I hope your ecovery goes well.
Derek Crook
Thanks for all those columns Laurence.
always interesting
Sorry to hear you are retiring. I hope all goes well and you continue to improve
Thank you
Best wishes
Malcolm
Best wishes for a full recovery. I will miss the blog as have been a regular reader for many years. Thanks for all the words of wisdom, opinions and research which went into it. The number of email posts are an indication of how well received they have been.
Regards
Rosie
Like all your other readers, Laurence, I’ll miss those weekly, thought provoking blogs. Thanks for writing them and sharing your links and musings.
All the very best to you
Diane
Best wishes, Laurence, and thanks for the thoughtful blogs, always enjoyed.
I remember you from Wester Hailes times, and your passion and determination informed my attitude to SEs ever since. Thank you.
I shall really miss you and your writing. I thoughly enjoyed your weekly blogs, admired your succinct style and agreed with many of your views on community enterprise. Glad to hear you are getting better and all the very best for the future.
So sad Larry, but I do understand. I so hope you recover more over the coming weeks. I’m really really going to miss your blogs. I have only been reading them about about the last 5 years, but now we a 10 month old baby, it has been wonderful to have a weekly intellectual read that is brief but deep! I have loved every week.
Thank you so much.
Rachel Butterworth (35) in Inverness
Thank you, Laurence for your Friday blogs over many years. I always looked forward to reading them and particularly enjoyed your thoughts and observations. I will miss these greatly but wish you a very good recovery and happy hours in your garden.
Laurence – great news that you are recovering. Thanks so much for everything, I have enjoyed your blog enormously. Many of your thoughts have sparked things off which have led to me looking further into articles you have referenced. Will miss your wise brain, your deeply humane values and your tangential look at the world. All the very best to you and your garden. I don’t want to rub it in given you fondness for Andalusia, but I’m off to Malaga walking with Ian McKenzie soon. We will both be thinking of you and will raise a glass. All the very best!
Laurence your balance of great wisdom and witty comentary has brought a smile to my face for over 10 years. Thank you so much for your dedication to social justice and truth. We will all miss your weekly writings but the main thing is that you rest and get back to good health. Thanks again for your tireless effort over the years
Gutted about this. Thank you, Laurence. You should be proud of the influence you’ve had with the blogs.
Laurence
I will seriously miss your posts and join a long list of readers who have enjoyed and been inspired by your thoughts and frequently incisive words.
I sympathise with your decision. I have just recently escaped! from hospital following a heart attack.
Tempus has a habit of ,”fugiting”
I wish you a speedy recovery and hope you will keep an email open.
Many thanks, Lawrence, for all your helpful, interesting and forward-looking messages. I am so glad to hear from you after your last message and really do hope that you manage to keep as well and healthy as possible.
Cuidate mucho.
With enormous thanks and immense gratitude for your writings over many years, which have led me to inumerable discoveries and joys. I have found much solace in your weekly reminder that there are many like us out there, who believe there is a better way, and that one day, with enough determination and will, we might just make it.
Laurence, thanks for the memories, the honest critique of politics, policy and people, the understanding of the challenges faced by people and place and solutions to make gentle the life of this world. We met briefly once at a DTAS conference and I hope we can do again. A conversation with our elders would be a good use of all our time. Ádh Mór.
Thank you Laurence. I have so enjoyed your writing and I wish you well on your adventures to come.
So glad to hear you are feeling better Laurence and so sorry you are having to call it a day. I will really miss your always thoughtful and challenging perspective, ideas, and wisdom. I will treasure and re-read and share. Go well
Hi Lawrence, really sorry to hear the bulletin is stopping….more importantly all the very best with your recovery. Sorry we’re to lose your insights but you’ve certainly done a shift…for social enterprise, for your readers and for all your community, there’s no other Lawrence…..please when your up to it post some pics of your well loved garden. My email box is always open….Enjoy your retirement…..Best wishes, Peter
There is, simply, no one like you, hard as it may be for you to imagine how much you will be missed in so many lives. At the risk of sounding religious, blessings on you, thousands and thousands. Please take care of your most precious of selves.
With warmest admiration,
Eloïse Watt (Now Portland and Roque Bluffs Maine, Formerly Manhattan and Skerray in Scotland when you entered my awareness)
Dear Laurence
Do get better soon – we’ll really miss your blog. This has been a weekly mainstay for me over many years. Thank you for your wisdom in helping us to understand our world and ourselves the better.
I think you qualify to be defined by the last lines of Middlemarch with slight adaption.
“His finely touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. His full nature, like a river, spent itself in channels which has no great name on the earth. But the effect of his being on those around him was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts: and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life …..”.
Good luck with your adventures – I am sure they are not over yet 🙂
John
Fairly said, and very true!
I shall miss my weekly thought stimulation Laurence, but your own health comes first. Thanks for all that deep research. Take care – Graham Keith
I’ll really miss your wisdom and kindness: you have been somewhat of a hidden mentor to me for decades, and it’s hard to imagine life without those cheery Friday messages and insights …
Best wishes, and good luck in your many future incarnations!
I’ve opened my own blog here, and you are most welcome to pop in from time to time: subscription is free and I have tried to keep it ‘bright and light’… but packed with life-enhancing content https://scotbest.substack.com/
Will miss you Laurence. Many thanks for what you have done. Really enjoyed your pieces on ethics and values.
I have really enjoyed reading your posts over the last few years and yours has been the only blog or bulletin I consistently have gone back to for its thought provoking (but also light and easy to digest) commentary. Well done on 22 years. I only caught the last 6 or so! All the best with your recovery. Your writing will be missed by many in Scotland’s third sector and beyond, I’m sure.
I have so appreciated your blogs. Challenging, enlivening and so well written.
I hope you recover well .
I have learned so much from you, but most of all, what you’ve put out to the universe, you’re getting it back, ten fold.
With thanks and gratitude to you, I have read your Friday lunchette for the past year, and have learned something new about we humans each week. Keep the faith, Laurence. x
I can not overstate how influential you’ve been in helping to develop my knowledge and understanding of Social Enterprise over the last decade. I’ve been inspired and motivated by your writings and grounded by your sheer honesty and humility. You are my ‘go to’ when I need to try to make sense of things.
You are a very special person. Take care of yourself.
With thanks and gratitude to you for your Friday lunchette posts, where each week I learned something new or understood something a little better or considered another perspective. Keep the faith, Laurence. x
Looked forward to it every week – will miss it every week. Latterly, especially, your musings on the ageing process – often profound, occasionally hilarious…
Opening my curtains on Thursday morning, the curtain rail collapses – wee bits of plastic flying everywhere. Drive into Edinburgh for replacement – find Homebase is selling rolls of turf – five for £20; remember recent decision to get some – helpful assistant loads boot. I can no longer mount a ladder, then use both hands – too unsteady; phone local handyman, Tommy, who comes after his work – cheerful and competent – takes him less than an hour to re-hang curtains. Rude to eat while he’s working – so after, starving, I drive into South Queensferry for a Lamb Bhuna. I have a favourite parking spot – looking across the three bridges to Fife. While unloading my supper, I somehow lose the boiled rice – eat my delicious lamb without it – then I remember I put it under the passenger seat? I also expect to remember soon why I have acquired five rolls of turf.
Dear Laurence. This is sad news. I have enjoyed your writing ever since typing up your handwritten notes when I worked at Senscot many moons ago. I particularly took note of the authors you quoted and referenced. Always a bulletin that I made time to read. Wishing you all the very best and as others above have said, you could always make a come back. Enjoy what comes next, Emma.
The end of an era Laurence! I started reading the bulletin long before I started working at SENScot- your musings and the information you shared helped guide me into the world of social enterprise. So many endings at the moment but I think you can be sure that your words have helped fuel the next generation of social entrepreneurs. I hope that you continue to recover- you’re garden will be needing all the attention now! Hope our paths cross again.
Sarah
Dear Laurence, we met some years ago when you kindly made time for me in relation to a Dissertation on Leadership within the Social Enterprise Sector. I have always looked forward to my Friday e-mail and like others – will feel this loss. It was always a joy to read the introduction and sign off in particular, as you have pointed out – many looked forward to this most. Although the ‘body’ of the post had important information about what was happening in the world, it was always your personal musings which gave me most pleasure. So sorry to learn you will be ending the posts – but if you don’t make a come back – enjoy the next bit. Brenda
Laurence, I am so sorry that your Friday email will no longer be arriving in my inbox but you are right to make your health a priority. Wishing you all the best and thanks for introducing me to Raymond Carver, Laura
I’m so sorry to hear this, I look forward to your ‘ramblings’ and you will be much missed…all the best with your recovery and as for the rest of us, the good fight continues. Stay well 🙂
Wishing you all the best with your ongoing recovery Laurence, and with thanks for your weekly blog which I have been reading since the start. So many changes over that time, in all our lives. But your reflections, humour, occasional charming grumpiness, and connections and insights – especially to Carver – have been a valued consistent. Thank you again.
Fridays will never be the same again. Seriously. I have never read a weekly bulletin so diligently and keenly; you’d often send me off to the library to borrow a book or three following someone’s work you’ve quoted or recommended. Your musings and thoughtfulness always provided a moment of reflection at the end of the week, just enough time to pause, think, relight the fire, and keep on keeping on. Thank you for sharing your musings – you’ve had a bigger impact than you realise. All the very best with your recovery. Enjoy more time in your garden. Take care, Martin
You have been a glorious, warm, consciously imperfect, occasional companion in my Great Battle. I bought multiple copies of your collected reflections and gave them out as rare gifts.
“You cannot buy the Revolution. You cannot make the Revolution. You can only be the Revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”
There will be a sage coloured gap in my week now. Thanks for filling it so beautifully these past few years.
Dear Lawrence
very sad that it has come to this but acceptance is also part of the “wisdom to know the difference”
You have been such a wise companion for so many of us and may you now find a different serenity
many thanks and warm wisws
Hugh
For years I have quietly looked forward to your weekly posts for a welcome dose of wisdom and humanity – they always made me think and reflect. Thank you for sharing with such generosity x
Thankyou so much for all your writings, musings, links, historic contexts, social impact stories and aspirational reaching.
I started working in the Scottish social enterprise sector in 2009 and your work has greatly influenced my outlooks and efforts. I think you have positively shaped & strengthened so many, in a myriad of ways. I send you my heartfelt gratitude & wish you many happy days in your garden x
Dear Lawrence, Thank you for all your wise words over the years. You have expanded my ‘must read’ library immeasurably, and I enjoy dipping into a large collection of quotes I’ve saved from your messages. I wish you contentment and happiness in your next adventures xx
Thank you for all your thought-provoking observations and articles. I will miss them and we will all miss your influence.
Wishing you a swift return to full health and a happy continued “retirement”.
I will miss these weekly reality checks. Access to such a wide range of reading, philosophical musings and thought provoking quotes has always rounded off the working week nicely. Take care of yourself and thank you for the effort and time put into each posting
Dear Laurence, This is number 100 in your appreciation list and hopefully not too much of a strain to read. But I must offer a strongly resonant echo of recognition and heartfelt thanks to all those you have so far received.
Please know that your newsletter is the ONLY one I’ve read religiously each week since I discovered you and it so many years ago. Your literary style and targeted content, peppered with those carefully chosen citations each week gave so much pleasure and made it unique and obligatory reading for this follower from Switzerland.
So deep bow to you, much appreciation again and wishing you a happy and blissful continuation to life for as long as it goes,
with love and warmest greetings,
Peter
Thank you for your beautiful writing style, wise words and thoughtfulness. I have been an avid reader since a valued colleague forwarded on your Friday musings to me about 10 years ago. I have learnt a great deal from following up on some of your references, hearing some of your opinions and having my interest sparked in areas I previously knew nothing about. You have had such a positive impact on so many people and broadened many minds along the way. Enjoy your garden, your freedom and your road to recovery – thank you Laurence.
With Love Kate xx
Thank you so much for your posts over the years. I always read them and always followed up on two or three of the links. But like others I most enjoyed your intros. Wishing you a speedy recovery and many more seasons with your hands in the soil.
Dear Laurence,
Thanks very much for the erudite and canny insights that have popped up in my inbox over the years, courtesy of you.
I’m sorry to hear that you don’t feel able to continue providing them, and I will miss them.
Good luck with the rest of your journey.
Gordon
Dear Laurence – I came to Glasgow in 1998….and quite soon in the early noughties I started reading your weekly piece. It has had a huge impact on me over the years. Always a great leveller after a rollercoaster week. A reminder to ‘keep the faith’ and do what we can in our time here. You have had a tremendously positive impact on myself and I’m sure many others during this time (and reading the comments above clearly this is true). You have broadened my knowledge and my thinking – and for that I am deeply indebted to someone I have never met, yet feel I know quite well in some ways. May your garden ever grow and your road to recovery be swift. And if you fancy a comeback gig then I’m sure we’ll all still tune in.
With love Nigel.
You have been a role model and great influence on me over the years since we met in Ullapool back at the start of the millennium. If nothing else I read the start and the end of all your posts. Numerous times you gave me food for thought and the kind of wisdom that one rarely comes across elsewhere. My heartfelt thanks to you for the waves of change and insight you have given us all.
Fondest best wishes
Sandy
Thankyou so much for your weekly posts. They were recommended, and forwarded, to me maybe 20 years ago by a good and wise friend, who died too soon last year. We often discussed them and shared insights gained. Your ongoing posts have been a lovely remaining connection despite his death. Your wise words filled some of the massive gap he left. Best wishes for whatever adventures await,
Anne
I’ve always been impressed by the economy of your writing and the careful selection of a handful of choice pieces to link out to – a model for other blogs and newsletters.
The candid and erudite musings that top and tail each one have been the icing on the cake.
All the best, Laurence.
Thank you Laurence – I’ve been reading your blog and sharing it with friends for 10+ years and have always looked forward to the weekly dose of reflections. Thank you thank you thank you. Go well x
Namaste Laurence, with sincere gratitude for your philosophical, and values based writings, digested weekly for 15 yrs. Your courage in sharing snippets from your weekly life, allowed us to know you as a friend, through sharing life’s ups and downs. I have loved the poets, philosophers & writers you have led me to. Each week there has been food for thought – the best kind of food!
I honour your calling time, on your blog.
May love, peace and contentment, be your companions going forward.
‘I have arrived, I am home,
in the here and now
I feel solid, I feel free
In the ultimate I dwell’ Thich Nhat Hahn
All the very best Laurence. I will miss your blog so much!
Malcolm
So sad to hear this, Laurence. You are an inspiration. I relate to your joys and your struggles. I’ll miss you. Take care
Thank you so much Laurence and sad to hear that your musings will not be coming in each week any more. Reading them was always a pleasure at work on a Friday afternoon . A big gap there now.
Many thanks for all your uplifting quotes and philosophical reflections.
Enjoy your well earned retirement and hope you get well soon.
Best wishes, Maggie
Hope you are doing well Laurence, your writings are missed.