An Examined Life

What really happens before I press Publish? A personal look at how I use AI to explore ideas, draft articles and make the final decisions.

Sometimes love remains, but affection and intimacy quietly slip into the background. A warm, gently humorous reflection on rediscovering closeness, remembering who we are beyond our everyday roles, and nurturing the relationships that matter.

A grandchild's tears have a remarkable ability to turn an otherwise sensible adult into a completely irrational grandparent. Not the I dropped my biscuit cry. Or the outraged howl because someone dared suggest shoes might be required before leaving the house. I mean those enormous little-person emotions that seem far too big for the body trying to contain them. Parents, quite rightly, have a job to do. There are boundaries to hold, behaviour to correct and lessons that cannot

One of my favourite films is The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, I've written about it before, believe it or not. Anyway, apart from the wonderful characters, beautiful setting and rather delightful reminder that life doesn't come with an expiry date, there's a piece of wisdom about facing life's difficulties that has stayed with me. It compares life's challenges to a wave. Resist it, and you risk being dragged under. Swim through it, and you'll eventually come out the other side

I’ve been looking at yoga lately. I’m certainly no yoga expert. I’m at the stage where I’m still deciding whether some of those positions are physically possible, for me at least, or whether the internet is having a joke at my expense. What interested me was the combination of movement, flexibility, strength and the possibility that yoga for weight loss might actually have some merit. Then I nearly bought a subscription. And suddenly, my investigation into yoga became an inve

Artificial intelligence sounds much more intimidating than it needs to. Even the name doesn't help. Artificial intelligence. It sounds technical, futuristic and slightly ominous, as though understanding it requires a computer science degree and a working knowledge of things involving lots of letters and numbers. I have neither. I'm in my sixties. I grew up long before smartphones, Google and social media became ordinary parts of life. I've watched technology arrive in waves,

What happens when we stop taking our homes for granted and really look at them? An exploration of feng shui, flow, light and seeing familiar spaces with fresh eyes.

Getting older changes more than our bodies. Relationships shift, love takes different forms, and solitude can become less lonely and considerably more interesting.

It was a warm spring evening, yesterday, and while wage-working, I was listening to a documentary about consciousness, neural networks and DMT. Once again, I found myself disappearing down one of those rabbit holes that makes everything else seem rather ordinary. Who are we, really? We look through the same world, yet consciousness may open a thousand different doors to how we experience it. It is a question I encountered years ago while studying philosophy at university, an

One philosophical question has led to another - from Hermes and consciousness to quantum reality and manifestation. I seem to have wandered down another rabbit hole.

I first encountered Thrice-Great Hermes years ago somewhere among alchemy, Rosicrucians and the Emerald Tablet. I no longer remember exactly where. Perhaps that is fitting, because the journey back has raised a much bigger question about knowledge itself.

I lived through the eighties, when phones were attached to walls and songs were recorded from the radio. Now I’m building Deb Eternal and working with AI. Sometimes technology just has to catch up with our ideas.

Is wondering what happens after death a waste of the life we have now? Perhaps contemplating death has less to do with what comes next and more to do with noticing how we're living today.

Scammers rely on urgency, fear, hope and trust. During Scams Awareness Week, three simple actions are worth remembering before clicking, paying or believing: stop, think and check.

Sometimes we aren't wishing for a different life so much as the life we once imagined. Perhaps it's time to stop measuring ourselves against who we thought we'd become and appreciate who we actually are.

Why do questions asked centuries ago still matter today? Sophie’s World invites us to wonder, question what we think we know, and discover why philosophy may be more relevant than ever.

Sometimes I know exactly how I feel. I’m angry. I’m sad. I’m disappointed, excited, worried or relieved. Nice and tidy. Emotion identified, label attached, move along please.

Bitter, Sweet and Shitty Moments. Life has a strange habit of refusing to stay in one emotional lane. Just when everything seems settled, somebody falls out with somebody else. Someone dies. A baby is born. A wedding invitation arrives. A relationship ends.

Many renovation programs focus on creating dream homes, often with large budgets and dramatic transformations. Home Town feels a little different. The homes are usually older, sometimes neglected, and often located in towns that have seen better days. And when I think about regional New South Wales, I can immediately picture places where that same approach could make a difference.

Perhaps someone online has become very important to you. Perhaps they make you feel seen, needed, loved, or hopeful in a way you have not felt for a long time. If the relationship, which currently appears to be only online, is genuine, honest questions will not harm it.