Finding joy in the everyday

Do not commit  adultery. (James 2:11) Back in mid 2012 I wrote the following blog post about adultery and mentioned the very successful Ashely Madison company. Of those who read that blog post, Ashely Madison (who has the bi-line " Life is short. Have an affair ") the name probably meant very little to you. It should now. Hackers released the names and emails of 33 million, yes, 33 million and whilst some are bogus and have never used the services of Ashely Madison — many many have. One, of course, was a member of the TV celebrity family, Josh Duggar, a man who should have known that this was an evil and deadly site. But this blog post isn't about Josh Duggar in particular — it about the millions of men and women just like him having affairs and think it was acceptable, it is ok and that it won't hurt anyone (if they don't get caught).  As for Christians like Josh Duggar, thinking they can get away with adultery, yes, they might from their sp...

Do not commit adultery. James 2:11 An "unforgiving, puritan Anglo-Saxon" attitude to adultery is damaging married life in Britain, driving couples to divorce rather than strengthening the family, according to an outspoken academic.  Catherine Hakim, argues that a "sour and rigid English view" of infidelity is condemning millions of people to live frustrated "celibate" lives with their spouses. In a book bound to provoke controversy, she likens faithful husbands and wives to "caged animals" and argues that they should be free to explore their "wild side" with lovers without the threat of divorce. Meeting a secret lover for a casual encounter should be as routine as dining out at a restaurant instead of eating at home. By Catherine Hakim, British social scientist *** Affairs - no, I am not having one and have no desire to have one. But I have worked with married men who have had affairs with women.   I often wonder...

Yet when men are caught looking at their favoured sexual material - pictures rather than words - that's somehow very different. Men who use porn are disgusting, perverted, their filthy smut a danger to marriage and sure sign of an addled male brain. . . . While women are allowed, indeed are encouraged, to blatantly enjoy their porn in the most public of settings, most men have no choice but to view their erotic material in secret, knowing full well the reaction from many of their partners if they are caught. The women's magazines regularly run articles discussing in solemn tones women's feelings of betrayal when they discover their partners using porn.   Bettina Arnht ( source ) I have written a number of stories on “mummy porn” in the last few months and I really wanted to share this quote by Bettina Arndt because I think it is so true. Whilst society frowns upon men who look at porn and quick to blame men for the collapse of marriages, women are openly reading ...

I love wearing perfume. I wear it when I am at home, when I go shopping and I wear it to work. When I was younger I bought expensive perfume and now that I am more money wise I tend to buy slightly cheaper perfume as I can't really justify spending $150 on a bottle of perfume!  I am not the only one who likes to wear perfume. It is a billion dollar industry that is only growing. In 1990, 76 new fragrance were launched worldwide, in 2011, this had increased to 1 047 launches (that is to say, new perfumes on the market) and already this year 500 have been launched adding to all the others that we currently have. Considering the economic struggles in many countries around the world, one has to wonder who is buying all these new perfumes, many are very expensive to purchase and not on the budget of most women.  With so many perfumes flooding the market, advertisers have had to be more daring (cunning) in their advertisements in an attempt to grab our attention. Sadly, ...

Flower from my garden I was in a bookshop the other day when a youngish mother went to the counter with a book. The young male assistant said " that is the second book in the series ". The mum (with her little boy) said, " I will take all the books in the series, an old lady recommended it - told me they will spice up my life ". The young man went and got the remaining books with quite a smirk on his face. He knew what these books were all about. I am referring to the best seller trilogy "50 Shades of Grey" by the British author, L E James.   It is not a book I have read and have no plans to read it (the plot sounds troubled [I don't read books about bondage] even if you remove the erotica), however millions have been sold worldwide and women are raving about it, the problem, it is porn (erotica) aimed directly at women of all ages. And women are going mad over it.  Where once hidden, women are now openly reading this sort of genre and it i...

If you mention porn, most people think men. This is true, most porn is watched and read by men, however there is a growing number of women who are reading pornographic novels.  In the past, many read in secret, however with the rise of the ebook, women are now turning to porn in greater numbers.  Still in secret but now they are read pornographic books without anyone knowing what they are reading. "Sales have always been good," said Tina Haveman, founder of eXtasy books, "but the increase has happened over the last few years because of the new ebook readers that have become available." "Ebooks are cheaper than paperbacks, and easier to buy because of the convenience of the internet," she added, "and people can read them without having to hide them from prying eyes." "You could be a mom, like, sitting in the park on a playday with the moms down the block and you could be reading, like, a real kinky novel and nobody knows," agree...