Here is a copy of the recent article I authored for a special Spiritual Direction themed edition of the Franciscan magazine published by the Society of St Francis, UK, January 2022. It is part of a series of articles I have now written on the S hadow and the spiritual life . Over many years of working as a spiritual director, I have found people come to me, some in Christian leadership, in times of crisis in their lives - relationship issues, anger, hidden addictions, extram

On the home page of my website is a picture of a cairn. Cairns are piles of stone placed one on top of the other to mark key events such as battles, burial sites, mark trails, or remember sacred or important events. They have an impermanence as they fall apart with the onslaught of the elements of life, inviting us to touch and interact with them, to rebuild them anew. In a similar way we build inner cairns to mark key moments in our lives - recalling important people, plac