Sustaining true friendship is a lot more challenging than we give it credit for.
Joy acts like a trampoline, everything that touches it bouncing right back off it.
The great advantage of being human is that we can employ rational thought and resolve to change our circumstances.
Like cars, every relationship requires a bit of an occasional service, and fine-tuning should be compulsory.
There are two ways of approaching your time on this planet: one is to sit around waiting for something to happen that will make sense of your existence, and the other is to get out there and find purpose for yourself.
With longer life spans and better health and education, many feel that giving birth to a baby a mere couple of decades after they themselves were in the cradle is a little premature.
We invest less in our friendships and expect more of friends than any other relationship. We spend days working out where to book for a romantic dinner, weeks wondering how to celebrate a partner or parent’s birthday, and seconds forgetting a friend’s important anniversary.
The point of the feminist movement wasnt simply to set our underwear on fire and muscle into small spaces in the male-dominated workplace, but to create a world where the contribution of both sexes was equally valued and no ones worth was judged on their take-home salary.
Since so many romantic comedies vary little in their storyline, the success or failure of such movies depends largely on whether we believe in the relationship of the protagonists.
In the city, I wake bolt upright in the small hours, convinced that intruders are marauding through our apartment despite Swiss bank-style security arrangements.
Having lived a full and stimulating life before I had my kids, I’ve relished every minute I’ve had to spend with them and felt a degree of confidence in dealing with their trials and tribulations to date.
Reading a book you are not enjoying is a torture not to be undertaken without a reward. I leave plays at the interval, too!
It’s so much easier to count our disadvantages than tot up the mitigating circumstances that generally outweigh the despair.
As a species, we tend to be doers, forever shaping and reshaping the world to better suit our purposes.
When the going gets tough, the prospect of delegating half your responsibilities to a willing volunteer, either to play a supporting role or take over the breadwinning, certainly holds allure.
Every friendship goes through ups and downs. Dysfunctional patterns set in; external situations cause internal friction; you grow apart and then bounce back together.
Life is rife with frustrations, jealousies and, on occasion, an overwhelming sense of its injustices, but it’s a big mistake to let such negative sentiments rule our lives and dictate choices.
Only those with skin as thick as elephant hide can hope to sail through their teens unscathed by self-doubt and bouts of depression.
Placing ‘amicable’ and ‘separation’ together creates an oxymoron – we don’t usually decide to end a partnership until the very sight of our soon-to-be ex fills us with disgust, misery, agony or a combination of all three.
Seeing the world differently is one of the toughest incompatibilities to reconcile in a relationship.