The Unclouded Hours Podcast

The sun rises high over residential buildings crowded with ornate, iron-clad balconies, and from my 5th floor perch, I can see a few brave souls sitting at cafe tables below, sheltered by trees. Come evening, the city will spring to life with hanging lights and lanterns, and those tables will fill with vermouth and bubbling conversations. Here in Madrid, where I’m on a summer sabbatical, there is...

What began as a cool cloudy morning made a quick switch to daylight and warmth. Spring suddenly gave way to summer here in the Northern Hemisphere, before baking us in a week of heat, then returning to rain. The weather is officially in transition, as are many of us; several dear friends are in the midst of moving house, and I am among them. ‘A change is as good as a rest’ we hear, but rest seems...

 This weekend in the UK is the May bank holiday, beginning with Beltane and the new moon today, and culminating with May the 4th. When planning long weekends, holidays or vacations, one of the first questions we tend to ask is, where am I going to go? We may dream of exotic places or faraway destinations that create distance from our day-to-day. But perhaps a better question, especially when we ha...

In the garden, there's a new arrival I’ve never seen before: a yellow tulip. There are actually two of them, and each morning I wonder how long the bulbs have been hiding there, and what silent work they’ve been doing underground to finally surface now, just when our rain-weary eyes are most in need of something bright. Something else has been silently working behind the scenes: a new project, whi...

Dear Friends, In the news this week was the announcement that is has rained every day since the turn of the new year in England. While the UK is renowned for its wet weather, there seems to be no end to the sky’s weeping, no light to remind us of the fact that spring will in fact come again. Rest, we often think, is the sunshine version of a life; bright and temporary, like the perfect advertised...

In the midst of a crowded -- or, as we like to say here, 'clouded' -- life, it may seem like our only moments to rest are in those rare chances we get to escape real life. Meanwhile, other living things have a deeper understanding: Rest is where real life comes back alive. How do we then rest in the midst of what we must do? Recorded on a rainy day as a new year was just waking up, we borrow a pra...

‘I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light, things that have saved my life over and over again, so that there is really only one logical conclusion. I need darkness as much as I need light,” writes Barbara Brown Taylor. Here in December in the northern hemisphere (as also in the southern hemisphere in fact), holiday lights drape over houses and trees and across...

When we enter a period of rest, however small or generous, we may meet with the unexpected. This often includes joy, but we may also meet with a sense of grief. This month, a page from the book of Diana's nearby Old Oak Tree (and an update on the tree itself) gives us reason for reassurance as we enter a winter time of rest. November has been quite full behind the scenes, so many thanks to Sid McG...

‘The trees are about to show us how beautiful it can be to let go,’ reads the chalkboard sign outside of a cafe. This golden month of October as the trees shed all they’ve produced, we step outside to take in the view of a wider horizon—a practice scientists have discovered changes our physiology and mental capacity. With the aid of a short poem by Archibald Lampman titled Refuge , look at, What i...

Welcome to September, And lunar eclipse greetings from England, where the rain has rejoined us. For listeners just joining us, each month, I offer a morsel of food for thought for inviting spaciousness into the weeks ahead, in rhythm with the seasons. This month, a guest joins our meditation: nature, in the form of the lake near my house. While recording, the sun came out from behind the clouds an...

Hello friends, Along one side of my neighbour’s garden is a long stretch of flourishing blackberries. They arrived, juicy and full, much earlier that usual. This autumn has brought the berries early, while the cooler temperatures are late. We need the rain; and, we are loving the sun. In an instant, of course, it could change. This is what I admire in Alexander Posey’s poem, Autumn . He carries us...

A note and meditation on the spaciousness inherent in the high summer of July. Plus readings from Jim Crumley's The Nature of Autumn , and an excerpt from Mary Oliver's poem, "To Begin With, the Sweet Grass." Also: an invitation to join me for the 2025 Rest & Writing Retreat, taking place 15-21 September 2025 . Take time to refill the well, and get generous, focused time for writing with a small g...