Fat to Beautiful in just 10 hours!

Today, ten people told me I am beautiful. They were not referring to my personality, but to my body. My 57-year-old, plus-size, battered, resilient, brilliant body. I am in Soweto, South Africa, where Bigger is Beautiful and Aged is Revered. Today I facilitated a workshop for 40 women living in the townships. I wore a [...]

By | 2021-05-15T07:51:49+01:00 February 12th, 2018|AccepTTranscend, Uncategorised, Woman Undiluted|

Soweto: I Am Because We Are

Sleepless in Soweto, my first night here in over a year, I feel blessed to be back in South Africa. Three years ago I had never been to this glorious, multi-faceted country with its troubled history, although when I was 17 I was selected as a volunteer for a six-month programme here which ultimately did [...]

By | 2024-05-14T20:27:24+01:00 November 26th, 2017|Uncategorised|

Women Undiluted: Sthembile Shoba – Guiding Light for Soweto Youth

In January 2015, while running a workshop in Botswana, I mentioned to a young participant that I was planning to visit Soweto en route back to the UK. She responded “You have to go to Soweto Theatre!” Back then, I had no idea that I would fall in love with Soweto and it would become [...]

By | 2018-05-07T20:08:43+01:00 November 20th, 2017|Uncategorised|

A Moment of Joy, A Lifetime of Happiness

For many people, Happiness is a holy grail; longed-for, searched for, but elusive. We invest huge amounts of time, energy and money in the search. We work to be able to buy what we believe we need. We strive to be what we believe we ought to be, sometimes losing sight of who we really [...]

By | 2018-05-10T19:18:08+01:00 November 12th, 2017|Positively Mental, Uncategorised, Woman Undiluted|

The Eternal Gift of Not Choosing Suicide

  Waking inexplicably at 3.30am and frustrated by continuing sleeplessness, I just logged on to twitter, where I found a post by a woman whose therapist suggested she write a letter to herself to read when she felt suicidal. I was catapulted to a different time, 28 years ago, when I was young and also [...]

By | 2020-10-16T12:34:59+01:00 September 22nd, 2017|AccepTTranscend, Positively Mental, Uncategorised, Woman Undiluted|