Thoughts, Stories & Reflections by Stephen Mitchell
Observations on Being a Weekend Father, Creating New Memories & Figuring Life Out
One of the stranger lessons I've learnt since separating my wife is simply this: Just because a marriage ends doesn't mean my responsibilities end with it. I don't mean financial obligations or legal arrangements. Those have their place. I'm talking about something less tangible. The wellbeing of our children and their mother still matters to... Continue Reading →
I am guessing nobody noticed... Yesterday afternoon I had just over 500 subscribers to this blog. After perusing a mere handful of them, I discovered them to be deceased blogs! I really shouldn't have been surprised: A lot of people switched from blogging to vlogging, podcasts, instagram and other more visual types of getting their... Continue Reading →
I've been using WordPress for nearly 20 years. During that time I've redesigned my own blog more times than I care to admit, tinkered with themes, broken the odd thing, fixed it again, and generally learned by doing. Even after all these years, I'd still be the first to admit I haven't explored every corner... Continue Reading →
When I was about ten years old, I quietly made a promise to myself that I never wanted to say goodbye to anyone ever again. At the time, it seemed like a sensible promise. Goodbyes hurt. They leave an empty space where someone used to be. So as a child I simply assumed that if... Continue Reading →
This thought hit me out of nowhere today: I don't need a partner anymore. Not in a bitter way. Not because I've given up on relationships. I simply realised I'm actually and genuinely okay. Life isn't perfect, yet I am going to be okay. A year ago, I wasn't sure I'd ever say that. After... Continue Reading →
Over the last few months I have compiled an interesting and life-changing list of the many things in my life I SHOULD be, COULD be and WILL be thankful for: Things I should be thankful for: These are the solid, already-in-my-hands realities. The stuff that’s quietly doing the heavy lifting. I am alive, functional, and... Continue Reading →
Over the past week (1-6 Feb 2026) , I barely left the house. Partly because I could afford to - a decent window cleaning job bought me some breathing room - yet mostly because I didn’t have the energy to be anywhere else. I lay on the lounge, eyes open, staring into space while the... Continue Reading →
Recently, I asked ChatGPT to talk about a subject it’s deeply invested in – itself. What came back wasn’t flashy or self-important, but calm, measured, and quietly impressive. It described artificial intelligence as the craft of teaching machines to think, learn, and decide in ways that echo human reasoning. No hype. No doom-saying. Just a... Continue Reading →
In 2016… Almost 10 years ago I said I’d been blogging online for 10 years — but it was actually longer than that. Way back in 1999, I was just jotting down thoughts and publishing them as separate pages on my Telstra personal page. Those pages don’t exist anymore. From memory, I then moved to... Continue Reading →
Choosing separation is EASY; Living with the aftermath is Not Before anyone nods along too easily with the popular narrative around grey separation, it’s worth slowing the tape. This article by Spicy Auntie paints later-life divorce as a kind of moral awakening for women who are "finally choosing themselves". From where I stand, it often... Continue Reading →
OK, our editors might have that slightly wrong. Maybe they meant to say the unusually shiny, suspiciously well-behaved interstellar object currently spreading its seed around our galaxy. Yet we will let it slide. AbstractRecent observations of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS have produced findings so inconsistent with established astrophysical theory that the research team briefly considered... Continue Reading →
This evening, on my walk home from my old house (~ the one where my separated-wife and our children still live) my thoughts drifted to the spaces that divide all of us. Walls and barricades, both physical and emotional, shape our conversations, our silences, even our memories. Somewhere between the streetlights and the cool night... Continue Reading →
Thoughts, Stories & Reflections by Stephen Mitchell 
[…] with XXY, and alone now, has taught me that my brain is wired differently to most – yet I…
[…] Living with XXY, and alone now, has taught me that my brain is wired differently to most – yet…