Host Catherine Cowell is joined by Maria Garvey for a conversation about retirement, rootedness, and rediscovering the transformative power of community and presence. Maria shares her personal journey from a life of professional busyness to a slower, more intentional rhythm grounded in her local village. She explores themes of loneliness, the quiet revolution of love, vulnerability as strength, and embracing life with playfulness and authenticity. With wisdom, humor, and touching stories—including goose rescues, therapeutic clowning, and the quiet magic of shared tea—this episode is a celebration of the sacredness found in everyday connection.

You can find a full transcript here.

If you'd like to get in touch, you can email Catherine at lovedcalledgifted@gmail.com

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Heather and Ben Cope have a lovely little studio in their home where they share their passion for music with lots of children with different special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). In this episode, they talk passionately about their love of music, about life as a blended SEND family and how they came to set up their CIC, Coping Together. They talk about the unique needs and abilities of every child who walks through their doors and how they adjust their approach to adapt to the needs and interests and passions of each individual. Their love for music, for the children they work with and for one another shines through this conversation. I already knew Heather and Ben because one of my sons has music lessons with them, as do the children of several of my friends and we all know that they are marvellous, but it was wonderful to have the chance to listen to their story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

There is a full transcript of this episode here.

You can contact the podcast at lovedcalledgifted@gmail.com and you can find our website here.

It would be great to hear from you. You can also follow us on Facebook

Let it Bleed! is the dance show that Lucie created collaboratively with a group of women to artistically explore and depict the journey through the different seasons of the cycle. She shares the inspiration for the show and the way it was created.

Heidi Steel runs Live Play Learn, a hub and a community for unschooling parents. Unschooling is an approach to homeschooling that starts with the understanding that humans are born with a natural ability to learn and parents can provide the natural environment in which that can happen for their children. She is a qualified primary school teacher, and having worked in schools for 14 years, knew that she wanted something different for her own children. She talks about how unschooling has positively shaped the life of her family and provided the opportunity to create environments and learning opportunities centred around the individual personalities and needs of each of her children. Including where there is neurodiversity. She hosts the Unschooling Conversations podcast and you can find resources and information at liveplaylearn.org

There is a transcript for this episode on the Loved Called Gifted website, where you can find out all sort of things about what I get up to.

You can connect with me on Facebook, or via email: lovedcalledgifted@gmail.com.

In the last episode, Catherine looked at the concept of Biblical Womanhood, and the fact that it doesn't really stand up to scrutiny if you start by looking at Jesus and his interactions with women. This time, she is joined by Sean Kennedy to consider manhood through the lens of Jesus, his life, his teachings and his interactions with the men around him. Spoiler alert: Jesus never once tells men they need to be in charge.

If you enjoy this episode and the ideas within it, you might like to read Catherine's new book: Finding God's Feminine Side, which is available on Amazon as both a paperback and a Kindle version.

Episode transcript

Loved Called Gifted website

Get in touch via the Facebook page or email us: lovedcalledgifted@gmail.com

What does it mean to be a “Christian Woman”? Over the years I have heard a lot and read a lot about what the ideal Christian Woman might be like. The notion of Biblical Womanhood is particularly prominent in certain sections of the church. One gets the picture of a quiet, submissive woman who’s good at needlework and making cupcakes. It’s an image that seems to be more about the ideal 1950’s housewife than it is anything in the Bible.

Perhaps it would make more sense, to start a conversation about Christian womanhood by looking at the life of Jesus. What was it like to be a woman and a disciple? What can we discover from the conversations between Jesus and the women he spent time with? What sort of womanly behaviour did he encourage?

In this episode, I explore those questions. And the answers turn out to be a bit different to the picture of ideal Christian Womanhood I have encountered elsewhere.

The new book mentioned in the podcast is now out and can be found on Amazon!

Transcript

To get in touch with Catherine, email: lovedcalledgifted@gmail.com

Or you could connect with us on Facebook.

Explore the Loved Called Gifted website.

Gill Jarrett is a holistic massage therapist, working in Shrewsbury. She discovered her passion for massage while on her own healing journey out of domestic violence and into healing and wholeness. She is now passionate about helping others on their journeys. She shares her own story and her desire to see others find healing, in body, mind and spirit. She is qualified in Jing massage and is an Advanced Clinical and Sports Massage Therapist. She has conducted research into the benefits of massage and often runs workshops, like the one she did for the University of Staffordshire, which is where she and Catherine met. She has lots of wisdom to share about life, passion, purpose and the healing that comes when we find our way back to ourselves and back into our bodies.

Episode Transcript

To find out more about Gill and (if you live near enough!) to find out how to go and get a massage yourself (highly recommended!) you can go to Gill's Facebook page.

You might like to follow the Loved Called Gifted Facebook page. Or have a look at our website.

This episode of the "Loved Called Gifted" podcast, host Catherine Cowell is joined by clinical psychologist and author Naomi Fisher. They discuss Fisher's book "When the Naughty Step Makes Things Worse" and explore alternative approaches to parenting, particularly for children who don’t respond to traditional methods. There are lots of relatable anecdotes and humour about the daily chaos of parenting, paired with Naomi's insights into navigating challenges with creativity.

There is a full transcript available here.

To connect with us, feel free to join in our Facebook page.

To find out more about Naomi Fisher and her work, go to:

https://naomifisher.co.uk/

To find out more about the work that Catherine does with parents, go to the And Breathe website.

You can find the Loved Called Gited website here