Jules P Richards

And breathe …
I remember this feeling, decades ago, in a coffee shop in Leicester Square in London. Bright lights, exciting music, aromatic coffee, multicultural metropolitan energy. I am not sure why I was there… I think I was waiting for a friend at an audition… energy, possibility, wonder… To be honest, now I am not sure if it was a dream.

Another time I was sitting alone at a rural bus stop in Cheshire. A time before mobile phones and digital timetables. I was waiting for the next bus. A sunny day, green fields, a bucolic horizon. Energy, possibility, wonder…

As a child, my parents took me on a trip to a family friend in Surbiton London (from Cornwall). I recall ‘real butter’. It was the first time I encountered doorstep toast, real butter, and unforgettable marmalade. Extravagance, delightful opulence, energy, possibility, wonder.

There have been many times since that have been full of this energy. My wife, my kids, friends, foreign lands, colleagues, the sea… always the sea…

I think these things are glimpses outside of our routine habitual safe everyday. To be treasured. Exciting scintillations of entrancing intoxicating energy.

30 years ago I spent 3 formative years with a bunch of creative students. This weekend I took a train from Leicester to new old places… 30 creative people from my university days met up and danced…

Thank you all! A remarkably awesome bunch of humans. After energy, possibility, wonder comes delight. Simply a delightful bunch of humans. To be treasured.

For 10 years I was part of a great bunch of folk from Melton Mowbray. Global Harmony community choir are a delightfully unique bunch!

Personally, I had a few ‘years out’ doing other things, but I returned to Global Harmony in January ’25. It’s great to be back singing.

We recently had a little musical soiree at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Melton. There’s a four minute mash-up below.

It’s such a joy to be singing again!

Things have changed a tad at Global Harmony, and my previous posts on this blog are out of date – but I’m happy to say it’s still the same good feeling!

Global Harmony are a mixed a cappella community choir based in the heart of Melton Mowbray. They sing a dynamic variety of world music in a fun, friendly and informal environment, celebrating diverse cultures and the joy of singing.

The Choir’s Musical Director, Jane Bursnall has extensive experience of leading mixed a capella choirs. Jane is a great believer in the benefit of singing for good mental health and well-being. Jane brings a friendly, light-hearted approach, and a sense of fun to our Monday evening sessions.

The choir have a session every Monday evening, see more at: https://www.globalharmony.org.uk/

Here’s the full concert from St John the Baptist Catholic Church Melton, 2nd May 2025.

The choir’s open to everyone! All songs are taught by ear so no experience necessary, no auditions, and your first rehearsal is absolutely free. If you fancy a try, get in touch with the choir.

Time left in book: 42 mins

You know when the mid-evening light sometimes makes everything look ethereal… and then it gets dark.

And the church bell tolled… We have time.

It takes half a minute for the church bell to ring 12 o’clock.

This week, I made hot cross buns. The dough took time to prove: mix and knead, wait an hour, add the fruit, wait an hour, form buns, and wait an hour.

Peeling potatoes, pealing bells, it takes time.

When we’re ill or bruised, it can take time to heal.

I don’t know about you, but my usual daily routine and habits have a momentum that does not allow life to ‘steep’. Steep: to extract a flavour or to soften, to surround or fill with a character.

When we have ‘things to do’, it’s hard to notice that we have time…
‘We have time’…
We have time to be…
Time to breathe…

This week we have had a week off work. We are fortunate, circumstances have caused us to use the time to pause and savour, and perhaps steep.

Nothing to be done, as Vladimir and Estragon might have said.

Some recent reading reminded me: to look upon all encounters for value, for opportunity to breathe deeper, and meet with our neighbour at a deeper level than our ‘usual’ fleeting presence of mind allows for…

Rosemerry Trommer writes:
‘What if we assume we belong?
Then we might find we are held by strands of birdsong…
I spent so much time worrying… until recently, real belonging asks nothing of me… 
Hold a door, pass the salt, share a sunset…’

Rumi wrote: ‘Be grateful for whoever comes, treat each guest honorably…’

And so back to the bell tolling 12… midnight…

Based on a true story.
Time left in book: …

You know when the morning light sometimes makes everything look ethereal…

Contrary to Nietzsche’s ‘ugly’:
Truth can be beautiful – we possess breath that we might steep in beauty.

I create images – it’s what I do.

My recent reading seems to focus on ‘the immediate’, ‘don’t go searching’ seems to be a take-away… 

Below are some blossom trees in Abbey Park in Leicester that have promised, and delivered recently. Abbey Park may be 150 years old but it still has more to give…

I’ve been meaning to post something for a while, but I can’t find space to form anything cohesive, so here’s (just) a list of recent jottings; (and a word cloud from said jottings)

Fact: apparently, we fall into a hypnotic state roughly ten times a day – for a few seconds only…

‘The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.’
Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes

‘Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.’ 
Carl Sagan

‘We create wonderful places by giving them our attention, not by finding “pristine” places that will bring wonder to us.’
David Haskell

‘We live more in the life we do not have than in the life we do,’
‘a poet’ 

‘The world will never starve for want of wonders; but only for want of wonder.’
G. K. Chesterton

‘the hardest thing of all to see is what is really there’
J.A. Baker; The Peregrine

‘There are things we will never see, unless we walk to them. Walking is a mobile form of waiting. What I take with me, what I leave behind, are of less importance than what I discover along the way.’
Thomas A. Clark

‘And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.’
Roald Dahl

‘Find the good. It’s all around you. Find it, showcase it, and you’ll start believing in it. And so will most people who come into contact with you.’
Jesse Owens

‘logical positivism; if we don’t have a word for something, we cannot think of it, let alone care for it’
A.J. Ayer 

sonder; a noun meaning the realisation that each random passer-by is living a life as vivid and complex as your own, populated with their ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness.

‘People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.’
Iris Murdoch, ‘A Fairly Honourable Defeat’

‘When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.’ Albert Einstein

There’s a giant mirror in a restaurant in Budapest where the reflections in glasses and the light of a candle make things sparkle. The occasion was enchanting. Literally enchanting. Indeed, Nothing much more to be done. Brought a tear to my eye… speech… less… be-atitude…
Perhaps it was a combination of sound, light, taste, smell, and significance. An illusion. Biodynamic wines!? sincerity? a delusion?
Then we move to a Budapest ‘ruin bar’, where nothing is polished… cherry flavoured IPA? Or a triple Riesling… all is well, mirror-ball reflections…. Happy daze.

We adventure away from the norms, looking for treasures, but as John Muir reflected “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”

A break away from the normal routine of life… being in places that from a distance hold enchanting ideas. Sitting drinking wine by the Danube River as the sun sets behind the Buda Palace… enchanting, cue the first few bars of Strauss’ Waltz.

But things are still ‘connected’… We can’t really break away… And why would we. We reflect, we sit and ‘sonder‘, amongst the city bustle people living vivid, complex lives, with ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited bruises and brilliance… All is well, with my soul…

Breathe deeply…

After reflection. Back home. Away from the city there’s birdsong, life goes on, and the things that need to be done still need to be done; dental appointments, daughters, decisions, duties, responsibilities…

But with the help of a large mirror, the things you look at change, when you change the way you look at things.

Budapest, where the food and friendship brings beatitude. X

Over the last few weeks, reading between the lines, things have glimmered, and glimpses of truth have sparked, but, as ever, they are very difficult to grasp. But listen… you can hear the smallest things…

I recently listened to a friend talking about the ‘scripts’ we have in our worldviews. The ideas and narratives we have both been given and have chosen. What do we unconsciously take for granted, and use as a foundation for our being.

Also, what are we holding onto, grasping too tightly? 

I was also reminded about the importance of ‘seasons’ “A season for planting, for waiting, for flowering, for stooping, for dying, for clearing and for emptiness”.  

 “A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing” Ecclesiastes 3

Things change…

The same friend above reminded me of ‘composting’, how it’s ‘natural’ for things to recompose; institutions, organizations, projects, personalities, should have the possibility of regeneration built into them, the potential of ending/changing (re-composing) into something else. Don’t feel precious about your grasp, but embrace, trust and grow.

As you may know, I ‘play’ at amateur theatre. The next amdram opportunity clashes with other plans I’ve made, so I will not be diving into a new script this ‘season’. I was disappointed, but in retrospect i am reflecting on not having to sweat over a new character. Learning to ‘play’ a character, learning their ‘script’, can be a consuming hobby. Perhaps it’s time to go off script.

Over the last five years I have played;

Simon ‘A keen young insurance broker, well dressed and professional looking’

Martin ‘Not lost, just waiting for someone… 40s looking for love’

Bernard; ‘A foolish fixer of things and odd job guy’  Played Bernard twice.

John: ‘A friend of Colin’s who is married to Evelyn.’

Bill: ‘Never lifted a finger in the house… couldn’t even be bothered to wipe the toilet down… and dead.’

Jack: ‘…who rapidly cultivates a taste for pouring whisky over his head’

Clarence: ‘A failed old-school Shakespearean actor, “Before my body I throw my warlike shield.”’

Jeff: ‘Nosy neighbour, moves the bins every week!’ 

Tony: ‘failed club singer, and flouncer’

As Rumi wrote..

This being human is a guest house.

Be grateful for whoever comes.

For now, we’re ‘off book’ and I am just being; Jules: ‘insert description here’.

Instead of lines, I have returned to tunes and songs. After a few years out, I have returned to Global Harmony the choir that I enjoyed for more than a decade. 

Everything comes from nature…

Goodness and brilliance…

Listen… can you hear the smallest things…

Another new year…

I recently heard “Art has a way of reflecting the nerve ends of our souls…”

And read “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.”

I’m toying with an ambition ‘to be more active than the algorithm’… Ahh… The cultural machinations that are constantly suggesting what we do, think, eat, hear, be… I think we can do better than that, do you?

With a little reflective realisation…“What do we know for sure?”

That life is tangible.

During holy-days there might be a chance to glimpse a sense of something more tangible. Something more than a WhatsApp TikTok message…

If the shepherds simply sent a WhatsApp message and the wise folks just commented on Linked In… I don’t think the story would have lasted… UV. ✨ MTFBWY. BFF.

Real life has colour and character, stories and sounds, light and shade…

True life can be achingly accordant, diverse and disparate. Immanuel, life is tangible.

This year I’ve neglected one of my favourite phrases, “The interaction between things is what makes things fruitful.”

So, this coming year, to try to be more active than the algorithms. Somehow.