If we are to replace  consumption as the central meaning of Christmas,  and of our lives, what should the new centre be? Dianne suggests that South Africa is in fact a good place to try and reach the heart of the Christmas mystery, because of the outsider status of the Holy Family. They were unwelcome migrants, travelling to Bethlehem on the bureaucratic whim of the Roman coloniser.

Ruark Swanepoel is an engineer who works in Fochville. That is part of his life. The other part is cultivating and combining art and artists. His art company is called 4Ever Odd – @4everodd on Instagram. The October feed on his Instagram is particularly rich, as three of the artists he works have been producing drawings for inktober – take a look to get an idea of what odd art is.

The light of the ordination makes the patterns that inevitably led there, very clear. Patricia served the Church and her people as a Dominican teaching sister for 44 years. In this time she studied Philosophy at Potch University. This opened the door to studying Theology in Rome. Here she experienced the first intimation of her calling, when a dying seminarian from South Africa asked her, and no-one else, to anoint him.

In this second podcast, the preparation is completed, and her ordination takes place. At great cost to her position in the Church, and her whole way of living. This is the story of a pioneer, risking everything, journeying through uncharted territory, opening a path for those coming after her. Utterly content, through all the upheaval and change, that she has found her calling.

For Patricia, the easy route would have been to take a side step into a denomination which allows the ordination of women. But Patricia is Catholic in her DNA: this is the faith she knows, loves, believes in. It is the faith she grew up with and will die in. So she took the lonely road of Catholic ordination, which turned out to be a very hard road indeed.

To say that Tumelo is an IT consultant who writes books in her spare time would be to vastly underrate the time, passion and energy that Tumelo puts into her books. Perhaps she has cracked the secret of a day that is longer than 24 hours? Because listening to Tumelo, you would think that she wrote and marketed books, full-time.

When you publish your own books, you do not have the luxury of relying on a publisher to do the marketing for you. So Tumelo works hard to make potential readers aware of her books, and to make sure readers have access to the books they want. Listening to Tumelo explain where she goes to discuss, and sell, her books, reminds you how vibrant the literature scene in Johannesburg is.

Joy Phala is passionate about togetherness in the plant world. In this podcast she explains how established plants can send food and nutrients to plants that are not doing well, even when the ailing plant is a different species to the helping plant. She talks about communities of microbes exchanging essential elements with plant roots, and easily destroyed by chemical fertilisers.

Neil grew up in Norwich in England, and lived for a few years in Aberystwyth in Wales. Johannesburg has been his home for most of his life. In this conversation Neil talks about his love for his adopted city and country. Neil is one of those refreshing people who, if you say anything about times in South Africa being bad, reminds you fiercely how much worse things were in the past.  About the damage to individual lives and communities, that will take generations to repair. 

Dineo describes herself as “a reformed debt-aholic”  She chronicled her journey out of debt on her website. She writes articles on debt, savings and investment for a range of South African publications

Dineo reads neuropsychology, and is particularly interested in the emotional component of our financial behaviour: why do we do what we do, and, particularly, how can we change the way we handle our money? This field is increasing in popularity, and is known as neuroeconomics and neurobehavioural finance

Marie Aoun is the founder of local organic perfume company Saint d’ici

“Talking perfume” sounds like a contradiction in terms. Perfume is for smelling! But Marie’s enchanting stories enhance her perfume. There are stories of origins: Aoun is a Lebanese name, and the orange blossom she uses is collected from orchards on the slopes of Lebanese hills. There are stories of the meaning of perfume:

“Our response to scent is primarily emotional: it resides in an ancient part of our brains– the amygdala and hippocampus. We seek the scent of flowers, fruit, roots, trees, resin and animals to complete us,” Marie says in an interview with Sowetan Live

“Communities need vessels for healing and love” says Nokulinda Mkhize-Horwood.. As a Sangoma she is able to do this healing work for her community, and help people to take their lives forward.

In the past, following your calling may have been done in secret, and izangoma might have been perceived as poor, old and rural people. This is not the case today. The gap between the traditional world and a fast-paced city life is not as large as outsiders might think, and it is certainly not unbridgeable.