BBC

“Oi! Incoming!”– a BBC Pause for Thought

/ Trey Hall / Leave a comment

A total joy to be invited to offer the 06.07.26 Pause for Thought on the first morning of the Sara Cox Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2! Listen here. Here’s what I shared:

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In our local park there’s a winding path – and from 8:00 in the morning it fills with kids heading to school, walking, or riding their bikes. I was walking the dog one morning in the park last week and noticed a group of adults chatting at the bottom of a little hill. They were spread right across the path, completely unaware they were blocking everybody else. Children were trudging around them. Kids riding bikes had to brake and pedal up into the long grass.

But then, there was this young girl – probably nine or ten years old. She crested the hill on her bike, she saw the adults, and she rang her bike bell. Well, the adults didn’t even look up. So she rang that bell again – they didn’t move. It was like they hadn’t woken up yet.

Finally, ten meters out, she rang that bell one more time and she yelled: “Oi! I’M INCOMING!” Suddenly the crowd woke up and scattered off the path, just in time, laughing. And the girl sailed through, triumphant.

Sara Cox – I thought of you.

It’s your first show and here you are, with energy and bells and a little bit of “Oi! Incoming!” To wake us up, to bring some joy to our days, and maybe even to move us on a bit, too. Welcome, we’re so glad you’re here.

I know you’ve got the amazing Tom Hanks coming in later. I heard him interviewed recently, about when he played Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers, the children’s television presenter who was also a Christian minister. Tom Hanks said he’d once heard Mr. Rogers say something like: if the only prayer we ever pray is “thank you, God”, that would be enough. And Tom Hanks said: I’m not really a religious person, but I love that.

I’m a Christian, and I love that, too. Whether we’re people who pray or people who don’t, wherever we are on the spirituality spectrum (or not), I think gratitude – “thank you” – is something many of us recognise.

And so, this morning, Sara, as you arrive – incoming! – I pray:

Thank you, God, for new beginnings.

Thank you for Bolton pride and a strong Lancashire accent.

Thank you for the music on the radio.

For sass and surprise, and for the gift of waking up again, however we feel about it.

Sara Cox, may your show be a blessing – a space for laughter, a force for good, and an absolute ton of fun.

My Biggest Temptation: a BBC “Pause for Thought”

/ Trey Hall / Leave a comment

Here’s the text for the 19 Feb 2021 “Pause for Thought” I offered on the Early Breakfast Show with Jane Middlemiss on BBC Radio 2. You can listen to the audio clip here on the BBC website.

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The first time I went to a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, I was doing research for a sermon on addiction. From my own experience of active alcoholics in my family, I expected to hear a load of whingeing and blaming other people for their problems. 

But this meeting felt different. Laughter filled the room. I was welcomed, given a coffee. Someone helped me find a seat.  

The meeting started with celebrating sober anniversaries. One guy said, it’s been hard but today it’s a year without a drink. And the crowd clapped and whistled.

Other folks said: it’s been 90 days, or it’s a decade, or today I’ve got a week sober.

I could feel a lump forming in my throat. 

Then people told deeper stories – of what had gone down in their lives, stuff they’d done, what they’d lost, the secrets that were killing them.

But also stories of how things had changed when they found the courage to be honest, when they shared the secrets, when they admitted they had a problem. 

Their stories were diverse, but there was a common theme: everyone who was getting better had realized they couldn’t get better by themselves. They couldn’t make it alone. Instead of blaming other people for their problems, they’d discovered that other people could actually help. Someone said: Welcome to being human. 

That lump in my throat had turned into tears.

A woman offered me a tissue. I said, thanks, I don’t know why I’m crying, I’m not an alcoholic, I’m just here for research purposes. She looked at me, she looked into me, really. She said, okay baby, okay. She knew. 

I knew, though It took me two more years to admit my drinking problem.

But the biggest obstacle to recovery for me was asking for help, learning that I need others.

My biggest temptation still is control freakery. I think I can sort it all out by myself. If I work hard enough, focus, organise, do enough yoga, I can fix anything. I’m a recovering alcoholic, but I’m also a recovering control freak.

But I’ve come to believe that everybody’s addicted to something. If we’re honest, we all struggle with some substance or behavior or attitude that’s just draining the life from us, and we cannot fix it on our own.

But that is actually good news: because it pushes us outside of ourselves. And help is only another human away.