Explore every episode of the podcast Big Skies and Small Ponds...with Drew Baxter
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This week, a shorter and more personal pause between chapters. Drew reflects on storytelling, memory, ego, kindness… and the strange reality that when you write about your own life, you can never fully step outside the frame. With warmth, self-deprecating humour, and honesty, this episode explores the difference between being the central figure in your own story… and believing yourself to be the hero of it.
Not declarations.Not achievements.
Just reflections.
Come in… sit awhile… and perhaps recognise a little of yourself along the way.
In this deeply personal chapter of Big Skies and Small Ponds, Drew Baxter reflects on the quiet emotional weight carried by those who stand at the front of a funeral service.
Through the story of a highly visible funeral for a mother and daughter, Drew explores the unseen work of a celebrant; the preparation, the listening, the responsibility of telling someone’s story with care… and the strange reality that a crowded chapel and a quiet room can carry exactly the same emotional weight.
At the centre of it all is the “scruffy blue suit”, part uniform, part armour, part companion and worn while walking into some of life’s hardest moments.
This chapter is not about grief as spectacle, nor about the details of private loss. Instead, it is a thoughtful and humane reflection on trust, dignity, compassion… and the hidden emotional labour of helping people say goodbye.
Contains some adult language and references to sudden death and bereavement.
A small note before we settle in… this chapter touches briefly on sudden death and police experiences, and includes one or two moments of strong language where they belonged to the story.
Big Skies and Small Ponds – Chapter Two - That Voice
If words matter… then perhaps the way we speak them matters too.
In this chapter, Drew reflects on voices — the ones we hear, remember, trust… and sometimes carry with us for years afterwards.
From standing beneath Lincoln’s Stonebow as a young police officer… to learning how calmness, humour, kindness and pause can shape human moments… this is a gentle and deeply personal reflection on finding your own voice, and discovering what it can mean to others.
In this opening chapter, Drew reflects on the stories we tell… and the way they shape how we remember.
From childhood memories of being read to and listening in wonder… to the fragments of lives shared in his work as a celebrant, this is a gentle exploration of storytelling in all its forms.
Because sometimes… it isn’t the story itself that stays with us…
…it’s the telling.
Big Skies and Small Ponds - an introduction & welcome.