Stuart
Wood was born in Derby, UK, at the end of 1958, and is married with two
children. Although he holds a doctorate in science, he is
also passionate about the creative arts and music, and is a gifted
drummer and percussionist. In 1998 he released his acclaimed
debut CD, Soundscapes, on which
percussion and drums paint "sound pictures" of biblical passages and
stories. In his 'spare' time, Stuart runs a number of
websites.
During
his work in science, medicine, music and the church, and also through
his many personal friendships, Stuart has gained a great breadth of
experience and understanding of relationships and
friendships. He has also made some big mistakes and suffered
serious illness, during which relationships and friendships were often
tested to the limit. However, through these experiences he
began to understand more deeply about relationships and their immense
influence on our lives. He also began to understand how our
relationships with others are influenced, for better and for worse, by
our own sense of worth and security.
Friendship
is a Verb (in a hurting world) was born out the experiences
of Stuart and close friends. His natural ability to
communicate difficult and often painful issues, sensitively yet
directly; simply yet honestly, oozes from every page. Whether
Stuart writes commentary or poetry, the same transparency and challenge
is there. He does not believe in trying to give
simple answers where there are none. However, he does believe
that it is important to speak up for those who have no voice, and that
it is important to challenge those in a position of power or influence
to carefully measure their words and actions.
Stuart
never deviates from challenging us all to consider our friendships and
relationships as the basic building blocks and cement in our daily
lives. Then everything we do would be based on a solid
foundation. He has learnt that 'relationship' and
'friendship' are not objects (nouns); they must be verbs (actions) for
us to really meet needs in our hurting world.
