Parakaleo Christian Counselling

By Nathan Manyema NOTE: This week's post is a song written by my son. I pray that it inspires you to keep dreaming, keep believing, keep hoping🙂.  🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀 the place where all good stories are made the memories that you'll laugh about the prices that you paid the time when nothing seems to rhyme you can't see where you're going but you're going the name you're trying to create a chance to be something great someone great If you stay I promise its worth the wait it happens overnight and greets when you wake

By Mercy Manyema I love watching sunrises and sunsets. They are beautiful, and the changing hues across the horizon are magnificent. I find both events so simple yet so surreal. I often take pictures but it can be quite difficult to fully capture the moment on a still photo.  Our entire lives are contained within sunrises and sunsets. Whatever happens in your life happens in the day time after the sun has risen, or during the night after the sun has set. It's a wonder then, that on any typical day we rush along, doing what we need to do and pay no attention to these two events that punctuate our lives daily. Maybe we are afraid to face them because they remind us that our days are like sand in an hourglass, slowly ebbing away. Solomon says in Eccl 5:18 -  "This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this...

By Nokukhanya Ncube  If only time would tell, most of us would have made better decisions, made better choices. We would have made a lot of memories with our loved ones who have died; better still we would have asked for forgiveness and also forgiven some of those people. I guess time only tells to those who listen attentively to it, or maybe it has its people🤷‍♀️. I marvel at how people live their lives following an automatic rhythm: waking up, checking your phone, bathing, eating etc,  and all the while time is being consumed. We all live like we have mastered how our lives are supposed to run. We live like we have it all under control and when things start to fall apart, or when things don't go according to how we want them to go, then we blame time . Here is the thing: there is nothing wrong with time. It cannot tell, its just being itself - AS TIME. We all have the same hours, same days of the week, same months and same number of days in a year. You have to s...

At this time of the year and in this side of the world, we are approaching winter. The leaves are changing color as quickly as the trees are shedding them. The sun sets sooner, evenings are becoming cooler and we are all bringing out our warm clothing. The seasons are changing. Just like they did last year, and the year before.  We all go through different seasons in life. Some are predictable and some are not, some are temporary and some are lasting. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus is credited as saying "Change is the only constant in life". The one thing we are guaranteed to face in this life is change, and changing seasons. Changing seasons can sometimes threaten our sense of security and wellbeing, and cause uncertainty, stress and anxiety. How does one navigate change without being adversely affected by it? I looked at these trees in my yard and realised a few things that are true of the seasons of climate as well as the seasons of life. Firstly, seasons do not affect u...

 Imagine if we could not start over - like never ever be able to try again. Imagine if in all things we could only have one shot at it, and if that failed, that would be the end of it. For one thing, I think we would have far more cases of depression and anxiety.  When I posted last week's story I realised that the very first blog I posted on here was around the same date, in 2022. I realised that it is actually true that May is a time of reflection for me (see post 11 May 2026 ). But I didn't post anything else since then. When I started, I had every intention of continuing but life happened, I focused on other things and it just didn't happen. I was grateful to have that first post still here. I was also grateful to have the chance to continue what I started. Not everything needs another chance, but it sure is good to have the chance when you need it. When God created the heavens and the earth ( Gen 1:1-31 ), He built opportunities to start over in our timeline. Every tur...

By Mercy Manyema At the start of this month, we lost a church member quite suddenly, and his wife is a good friend of mine. We are all still trying to process this loss in our own different ways. Apart from this, the month of May tends to be a very reflective month for me because it is my birth month, it is the month that my father passed away 23 years ago, and it was my late grandmother’s birth month too. These are all significant events for me, so I often take a moment to just slow down and reflect. This week, and probably for the rest of the month, my reflections are focusing a lot on the brevity of life. I got to asking myself if I would have any regrets, should I die today. I asked myself what we need to do in order to “number our days” as the verse says. Is it possible to live an intentional and focused life even without experiencing tragedy? Are there things that I need to attend to in my life that I have been putting off? I have much more reflection to do yet. But I...

By Mercy Manyema This blog has been a long time coming. I toyed with the idea for some years, but the timing just never seemed right. For a person who has always been known to be quiet and reserved, I have realised that I actually have a lot to say about a lot of things. I daresay that knack has often landed me in trouble 😅. A blog seemed a perfect way to have my say about the things that matter not only to me but to those around me, and to society at large.  So what will his blog be about? - all things mental health. It feels like a big part of my life has been preparing me for this very moment – more of that in coming posts. I want to join the ranks of many who have gone before me to raise awareness and facilitate dialogue on mental health issues, especially in the African and Christian contexts. I hope to draw insights from my experience in public health research as well as psychology/counselling, and theology. Mental health challenges are no respecter of persons. We all go thr...