More lessons from my garden

Hurray!  This morning we awoke to no rain!  Time to get in the garden and start clearing up after the winter.  My first job was to sort out the strawberries as they give us fruit in June so there isn't much time to make sure they're ok.

It seems that weeds thrive in our winter while all the plants I try to cultivate seem to die.  The truth is that they are really only resting and sleeping, waiting for warmer weather to awaken again and give us so much.  So looking at the strawberry patch, I found quite a lot of weeds that needed to be cleared.  There was also a lot of dead leaves from last year's strawberry growth that needed to be cleared.

It was amazing how once I managed to clear away the weeds and the dead leaves, there was new life underneath all the chaos.  We know that the weeds tend to take over unless they are kept in check but what I realised also this morning is that the dead leaves, last year's growth not only stopped the new leaves from being seen, they were actually chokling them while on the same plant, covering them and stopping them from receiving the life-giving rays of the sun.

It isn't always easy to let go of what is passed but holding onto it can so easily stop new growth.  I was thankful for last year's leaves and the produce they gave us.  They served their purpose then but now the new life needs to come through and supply new and fresh fruit this year.  

Today is also Easter Sunday, the Day of Resurrection.  Thank you garden and my strawberry plants for showing me again the miracle of new life when everything seems dead and finished. God's creation can teach us so much.  He that has eyes let him see! 

Transfish

I enjoy documentary programmes about wildlife and creation.  At the moment we have the new series with David Attenborough called Blue Planet 2.  We have seen 2 episodes so far and am looking forward the the third and last episode on Sunday.  In the first episode, there was amazing footage of an Asian Sheepshead Wrasse.  This particular filming was done off the coast of Northern Japan.  It first showed a male and female together.  The female is the smaller fish in the photo.  The male also has a large protrusion on the forehead.  The female was trying to get the male interested in her but when nothing happened in spite of all her efforts, she swam off and secluded herself in a hole in the coral reef.




Things started to happen with her - enzymes and hormones were released inside her body as she was changing both inside and in appearance.  The protrusion on her head became larger and when she eventually emerged from her isolation she had changed from a female fish into a male fish.  Creation has its own transgender creature!  

The account can be read on http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/blue-planet-2-transexual-fish-david-attenborough-a8026911.html
The female then went back and challenged the male and eventually took over his territory as a fully-grown alpha male.
Another strange occurrence in nature is the fact that it is the male seahorse that carries and gives birth to the young.  

For those who believe that God is the Creator of all things, then we must accept that the particular gender of creation does not seem to be important to him.  In fact in the Bible we read many, many times about eunuchs.  In Isaiah 56:4-5 God says that he accepts their worship and has a place for them within the temple.  When referring to eunuchs in Matthew 19:12, Jesus says that some are born that way and some are made that way.  'Born that way' would be what we now call Gays and 'made that way' surely refers to transgender people.  Paul teaches us that before God there is neither male nor female but we are all one before him.

So, I can't help wondering why some religious people get so obsessed with gender identity when according to creation, many parts of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus it would seem that to God it is not that important.  How we live and express our love to God is more important it would seem.  Maybe it's time to follow the teachings of Jesus and be a bit more inclusive instead of judgmental. 

Variety and Nonconformity

Hello, everyone, as you can see I'm back after quite a long break.  I won't be posting regularly every week as before but will do so occasionally.

In the news lately, we have been advised that taking a brisk walk every day even for only 10 minutes, will keep us healthy.  So this morning I decided to go for a short walk around the estate where I live.  I don't know how often I'll do this, but at least it will be a start!  After I'd finished doing some chores in the house and had put a load of washing in the washer, I went on my way.

I passed a garden with beautiful flowers, all colours, shapes and sizes making a wonderful display.  Further along a passed a hedge trimmed very neatly and next to it a neighbouring hedge that was obviously well tended but one twig stuck out.  It made me smile.  Nonconformist!  In just two gardens it seemed that I was being reminded of some great truths.  The beautiful display was a combination of many different plants, different formations of flowers, different sizes and colours but together making the garden a very pleasant place.  The hedge reminded me that even in creation, there are those things that don't always conform to what the majority are doing and that's ok.  Variety is accepted and tolerated.



It reminded me of the time I with my two sons were visiting family in Argentina (in 1999) and we went to visit one niece/cousin who met us at the airport with her husband and two daughters (the third daughter was born a few years later).  We went to a small cafe for something to eat and the youngest daughter Cata (Catalina) just couldn't sit still.  Her father kept saying, 'Cata, sit down.', 'Cata, don't do that.'  Eventually he asked, 'Cata, what do you want?'  Immediately, without even thinking about it, she replied in her childhood innocence, 'I want to misbehave.' Well, we didn't know whether to laugh or look away and ignore the comment.  Her father then explained that she couldn't misbehave here as other people wouldn't like it.  Of course, I'm not advocating we misbehave but how often children in all innocence question why they must conform to what other people expect of them.  She is now a lovely young lady who probably doesn't even remember that occasion.

Thank God, that He doesn't create clones!  Creation shows us that variety and difference go to make life beautiful and that we are all individuals who contribute to the success of the whole.  Even those who don't conform to what the majority want have a place and make life interesting, often bringing a different approach and way of seeing things.   All parents will vouch for the fact that all their children are different, each special in their own way.  It's when others don't always do things the way we like or insist on being just that bit different that we find it hard to accept.  Patience!  I'm working on it. 

   

Great Fully Grateful

Today's photo taken in a bird sanctuary in Brazil near Iguazu.

At the beginning of the week I was nominated on social media by my daughter-in-law, Lisa Andradez, to a 6 day challenge to share for 6 consecutive days a photograph I have taken at some time about the natural world.  I immediately started looking through my folders of photos, looking for 6 photos that would be completely different while at the same time show a variety of creation.  As I sifted through and began choosing I felt such gratitude because I have had the privilege of visiting so many places and had such wonderful experiences conjuring up great memories for me now as I look back on what each photo represents.  To others who see them, they are probably just interesting photos but for me they are reliving wonderful times that I have had the great privilege to experience.  People and situations have come flooding back to my mind, experiences that have made me the person I am today.  What a wonderful world indeed!

My great-grandmother, my grandmother, my mother
and elder brother.  Sadly all have now passed away.

This week we have also had the pleasure of a visit from my elder sister, my brother-in-law and their younger son.  We have been able to chat at length face to face and not just over the phone.  We have been able to go out and share meals together - 3 sisters, my brother-in-law and 3 cousins.  And so I am grateful for a wonderful family who over many years have shared and helped each other, celebrating important occasions and looking back on happy days gone by.  I have a number of photos of my family that go back 5 generations.  I can't even remember where I managed to get copies of some of them or when I put them on my computer but it was good to be able to share them and remember our parents and grandparents and even our great grandmother, seeing photos of us when we were small and as we grew older.  There is one of my younger sister taking her first step (to try to get hold of the camera) and one of my elder sister's wedding and again with her children when they were young.  Again, precious photos bringing back cherished memories and a grateful heart for wonderful Christian parents and a very happy childhood.

Cherish the NHS!

Yesterday I had my check up at the Eye Clinic following the removal of a cataract from my right eye just over 4 weeks ago.  I am delighted with the outcome, being able to see things I haven't been able to in years.  I can now read the subtitles on the television news and see which number bus is coming before it actually gets up to me.  I go along the street now reading car number plates, just because now I can!   On my visit yesterday, the consultant was very pleased the way it had turned out and has given the go-ahead to get the other eye done as soon as possible.  Yeah!!  Can't wait!  I am so grateful for the many talented doctors and consultants (particularly in this case Mr Shah) who are so dedicated and learned so as to restore sight to the 'almost blind'.  It has given me a new lease of life and much pleasure in being able tp see details that I missed before.  It may seem a routine operation to some but for me it has meant so much.  Thank you to all who work within the NHS in whatever capacity.  Be grateful for our NHS and cherish it.

So this week has be a great week and I am fully grateful.

Inspiring

Lisa Potts receiving the George Medal.

In the news this week there was an item on Lisa Potts (now Webb).  In case the name doesn't immediately ring a bell, she was the nursery teacher who in 1996 bent over the children she was caring for at the nursery school when a man with paranoid schizophrenia began attacking them with a machete.  She sustained some horrific injuries to her head, back and arms, one arm being almost severed.  She subsequently lived for some time with the consequences and trauma of this event.  She was only 21 years old at the time but her bravery and courage was rewarded with a medal from the Queen - the George Medal for outstanding bravery.

http://www.upworthy.com/the-popes-lunch-plans-tomorrow-
are-exactly-why-we-love-the-dude-so-much?c=ufb1

Also in the news this week has been the visit of Pope Francis to the US.  Even if you don't agree with some of the things he has to say. you can't help but like him as he keeps surprising us with some of the things he says and does.  This week as he addressed the American Congress, he did not shy away from talking about climate change and the need to abolish the death penalty, saying that all human life is sacred.  Afterwards, instead of eating with the politicians as had been planned, he went to a homeless centre and helped to serve meals to the homeless people who gathered there.  He also stopped the motorcade in order to listen to the request of a small girl.  His humility and the way he identifies with the ordinary worker is symbolically demonstrated in the motorcade of all the big flashy cars while he travels in a little Fiat along with his assistant.

This week I have also been washing out all the bird feeders and buying in the various types of bird food ready for the time of looking after and feeding our wild birds. I do enjoy watching the birds as they come and feed in our garden.  They give me a great deal of pleasure.  On Twitter and Facebook I follow Simon King.  He is probably better known as one of the presenters that used to be on Spring/Autumn Watch.  He lives in Somerset on a plot of land covering quite a few acres.  He has over the past few years converted this wild piece of land into what is known as Wild Meadows where he seeks to encourage various types of wildlife, large and small.  He's also set up cameras that you can watch the wildlife for yourself, including badgers, foxes, otters, small rodents, pheasants, kingfishers, and many other types of birds.  You can link up with his website here and here.

 Three completely different types of people but all inspiring in their own way and within their own situations and circumstances.  But inspiring people should be more than just interesting stories that catch your eye.  Learning about them should really inspire us to want to reach out and do more, to copy them in a way even if a bit more simply.  After one of the Pope's speeches someone wrote on Twitter 'Not many speeches make me want to be a better person.  Thank you Pope.'  That's inspiring.  The bravery of Lisa Potts makes us feel how important it is to care for and protect those more vulnerable.  Simon King inspires me to be aware of the environment and the natural world and do something to help, even though on a much smaller scale than him.  I don't embrace all the wildlife but I do like to feed the wild birds in the winter and plant things that help bees and butterflies in the summer.  Who inspires you?  It may not be someone famous or in the media headlines.  It might be a family member or a neighbour or someone you've been told about or seen on social media.  Let's be inspired by someone today and when thinking of them don't just say 'Ah! That's nice' but determine to reach out to make the world a little better just where we are and in so doing maybe inspire others to do the same..  

The 3 Ls

Our beautiful magnolia tree with many buds still to open.

We have a rather large evergreen magnolia tree in our garden.  It was getting bigger than we really wanted so after the end of last winter, in early spring, my son pruned it back a bit.  They say that you shouldn't prune it too vigorously all at once but stage the pruning out over a few years.  So that's what we (he) did.  Last year we had a few flowers but this year, since pruning, the tree has produced no end of flowers and continues with more buds well into late summer and the beginning of autumn.  Yes according to the calendar we are nearing autumn.   

Clearing away some of the lawn to plant more produce

As now in the garden there are only  a few bulbs of garlic and the blackberries left to pick, I am beginning to think about next year and planning where I want to put what.  I have decided to get rid of a little bit more of the (quite large) lawn and move some of the strawberry plants in order to make room for more vegetables higher up the garden.  It seems that every year I'm learning new things about what grows best where in the garden.  Things I haven't had much success with then I have to admit defeat in that area and let them go while turning my hand to something else instead, something that will give us some fruit or vegetables.  I'm only an amateur gardener but I do enjoy my garden and am happiest when I can potter around it.  Basically I learn by trying, sometimes failing and discovering through experience what works where and what doesn't.  I am also aware that although I still manage to do about 1-2 hours gardening at a time, it might not be too long before these old bones won't let me do even that.  So each year I re-assess and plan for next year. 

The first signs of fruit on the fig tree.

Happily this year I have seen signs that our fig tree, bought from being a young sapling a few years ago, will indeed next year actually give us some fruit.  It has obviously matured enough now to produce the much awaited fruit.  There are small bud-like figs just appearing and this means that although they won't mature and ripen enough to eat this year, they will survive the winter, as long as they are covered and protected from any frost and continue to grow and ripen next year.  Here's hoping!  I just love fresh figs.  When I look at the fig tree I often think of the story of Jesus when he cursed the fig tree.  Knowing that small fig 'buds' usually appear during the autumn and ripen the following year, maybe Jesus knowing this saw that that particular tree had no signs of producing fruit and if it was a mature tree then he would know that it was indeed dying.  We tend to think of that story as Jesus condemning that tree to die, almost in anger but I like to think more that actually he was pointing out that it was a tree that wasn't giving any fruit, it wasn't fulfilling its purpose and would surely die.

 Sometimes we have to take a look at our lives.  There is a danger that our lives get so full of busy-ness that we leave too little space to actually flourish.  Maybe there are some things that need to be pruned back, cut out in order to open up into greater splendour.  Maybe we need to re-think what we're doing and if it's having the results we are looking for and maybe change direction somewhat, leaving some things altogether and learning new ways of growing and giving fruit.  We are all different and produce different fruit and need different types of soil in which to grow, having a variety of end results if we're nurtured and grown according to our individual purpose.  My garden preaches many sermons to me if I have the eyes to see and the ears to hear what creation is saying.  The 3 Ls - Look, Listen and Learn.

Living It

I have to admit that when I was at school (many, many moons ago!) I was more of a Maths person.  I loved Algebra.  To me it seemed more like a game, solving a puzzle.  What I never really liked was the science subjects. (Sorry to all you scientists out there.)  We had to take at least one science subject so I decided on Biology.  I always found reading the scientific books very hard going, especially when they used Latin terminology.  But I did enjoy the practical lessons.  After carrying out some experiment, the dull, boring books somehow came to life.  On doing the experiments and discovering the results, the written word began to make some sense.  Even now I love watching nature documentaries and seeing things that you can only imagine when you read about them.

The written word, although necessary and good for reference is only part of the whole picture.  So many people refer to sacred texts as though they are the be all and end all of religious thought.  We call the Bible the Word of God.  Many take that to mean that there was no word from God before the Bible or has been since.  For them the written word in the Bible is the sum total of what God is and what his truth means almost to the point of worshipping the written word.  But God's first words were of creation - and God said ... ....  Throughout the Bible we have stories of God's word.  He gave the commandments, written words, rules of dos and don'ts as a guide.  He spoke through prophets in order to bring his words alive.  Often the prophets would actually live out their prophecies so people could see what they meant.  And then of course, Jesus came to show us what God is like - the (written) word made flesh.  We can read something and not really grasp the full meaning until we actually see it lived out.

I like to think of nature as the first Bible - the spoken word of God as opposed to the written word.  Our faith should not be just about the written word, theology, the things that we believe.  It's not about reciting creeds, dogmas and belief systems.  The written word should always point to the living word.  We are each a living example of our faith.  The Celtic British monk Pelagius (c 354 - 418) once said, 

'It is not what you believe that matters, it is how you respond with your heart and your actions.  It is not believing in Christ that matters, it is becoming like him.'  

Red Admiral butterfly

We learn from nature, the living word of God how all of creation is interdependent.  One species does not exist to the exclusion of all others.  Even within a species there is diversity.  A white cabbage butterfly is not 'wrong' because it is not coloured like a red admiral butterfly.  We smile at that ridiculous thought.  Yet we look at others who look, think and act a bit differently from us and presume that they must be wrong.  No!  They're just different.  Jesus (the written word made into the living word) shows that God's love is all-embracing.  As Richard Rohr in one of his meditations this week says,

Unfortunately we moved all-knowing of God largely into the realm of argumentative words, which extremely narrowed the field of knowing and actually experiencing.

I wish we could take on board God's living word and learn from it more and not be so dogmatic about our personal and particular interpretation of the written word so that our experience of him becomes deeper and more meaningful - his living word becoming flesh in and through us.

Flightless

This week I watched a very interesting programme by David Attenborough.  The truth is that I find all of his programmes interesting.  He always seems to come up with new things and very interesting details about creation.  I like his style and way of presenting so when the new programme was televised, of course I had to watch.  It was about birds but not the usual garden kind or even exotic types like birds of paradise.  They were birds that don't fly.  The point was made that when we think of birds we think of creatures that fly, sing and have feathers.  But there is a group of birds that don't fly, can't sing and their 'feathers' are more like fluff and certainly not suitable for flying as the different strands don't have hooks to make them click together in an aerodynamic way.  In fact some of these birds barely have wings at all.  


Scientists still put them in the category of birds because of their DNA and evolutionary history.  Apparently they became land based after the dinosaurs died out and they were no longer predated and so didn't need to fly away to safety.  It was then that they were able to stay on land and grow really big,  unlike the birds that they had evolved from.  There are five birds in this group: the ostrich (Africa), rhea (South America), emu and cassowary (Australia) and the kiwi (New Zealand).  The point that got to me was that although this group of birds were not at all like the usual sort of bird, they were still categorised as birds.  Scientists accepted that even though they were nothing like their distant cousins, they were still birds.  


We humans tend to categorise other people all the time, whether it be by religion, politics, gender, profession, nationality, likes and dislikes, disability and health ... ... and so on.  We have cartoon images in our minds of a beret-wearing, onion-selling Frenchman, a loud American tourist, a pasta-eating Italian, a yodeling Swiss goatherd, a beer-swilling, wurst-eating German ... etc.  Of course we know that not every Frenchman wears a beret and not all of the Swiss yodel.  Just as we don't expect other nationalities to think that all British men wear bowler hats.  But there is a tendency that until we get to know someone then we have a certain image in our minds depending on the category we have placed them in.  I remember many years ago someone who didn't want to tell her Christian friend that she was getting a divorce because she thought that she would disapprove and probably give her a lecture about 'til death us do part'.  Actually the friend would not have reacted in that way, just the opposite but how often we prejudge what people are like because they have been given a label and put into a category. 

An ostrich can't fly, a cassowary can't sing and the 'feathers' and wings of the kiwi are almost non-existent.  Yet they are birds.  Not all Germans drink beer but they are still Germans.  People express their love for and relationship with God in different and varied ways.  Just because someone doesn't fit exactly into our thinking of what a Christian is or  should do doesn't mean that they are not Christians.  Doing things differently doesn't mean it's wrong.  It's just different.  It's a shame that we can easily accept such diversity in the natural world yet find it difficult to do the same with God's human part of creation.  Like the flightless birds, people grow, evolve and change.  God is BIG and all-encompassing and all of his creation is varied and that's the wonder of it.  

The Irony of Life

On a Wednesday morning I always get up at 6.30 to sort out the recycling and rubbish.  The bins need to be out by 7 am.  You can put them out the night before but most people, myself included, prefer to put them out in the morning, mainly to avoid the animal wildlife (including fox and badger) that comes out here at night and that would make a real mess rummaging in the stuff we throw away.  This week I noticed that it was quite light when I put the bins out.  Until now the early mornings have been dark but the lighter mornings and the longer evenings before nightfall are becoming noticeable.  It makes it much easier when you can see clearly what you are doing even if you have got a security light to help.  There's no light to compete with natural light.  The other day I was also able to hang the washing outside to dry.  When I brought it in the house again it was completely dry.  I had managed to wash, dry and iron the clothes all before our evening meal.  I haven't been able to do that for quite a few months.


Anyone who knows me knows how I love my garden.  When living in England, I have always had a garden, except that is when I first came to live in Yeovil.  My son and I shared an upstairs flat.  The thing I really disliked was that I had no plot of land to grow anything and when we opened the (only) door of the flat all you could see was stairs.  Ugh!  You couldn't even see outside - just stairs.  So I was over the moon when we were able to move to the house we now live in as I have a nice big rear garden.  The thing is now at 74 I wish I had the energy I had 10 years ago but I still manage to potter around and enjoy it.


The thing about these three experiences is that having experienced the down side of things, I have come to appreciate the positive side.  If I were always able to put the bins out in daylight, then I wouldn't appreciate the lighter mornings.  During the winter months, the drying of clothes has to be done indoors and I really prefer to hang things out to dry by the natural warmth of the sun and the movement of the breeze.  I think clothes smell nicer if they've been dried outside.  At least that's my opinion.  So I really like it when I can get things washed and dried all in the same day without having to live with damp clothes hanging around.  Having lived in an upstairs flat made me realise just how much I enjoy having a garden and how much I missed not having one.  So it seems that experiencing the negative side of things helps us to appreciate the positive side more.

Just this week I read something that brought this home to me.  It said:

Life is so ironic that we have to have known sadness in order to savour happiness, noise in order to appreciate silence and absence in order to enjoy someone's presence.

I think that is a sentiment we can all relate to.  Take time and dwell on each one for a while.  It's a bit like the two sides of a coin.  You can't have one without the other.  So even out of the not-so-nice experiences in life, we can gain something good.

Creative Spirit

This was taken at the beginning of this week.
Now the bulb is past the height of the leaves. 

Every year for the past few years, a friend of mine has given me an amaryllis bulb for my birthday.  This year she visited me in the second half of January and brought the bulb with her.  A couple of days later I planted the bulb and within the short space of a month it has grown immensely and now has a bud just waiting to open.  Such elegance and beauty from something that looks quite dirty and not at all pretty.  It cheers the heart to see signs of spring all around us now.  Snowdrops have been and gone, crocuses are blossoming and the daffodils are growing stronger every day - that is the bulbs in my garden.  Early daffodils have been flowering in other parts of the town since around Christmas time.  It is encouraging to see new life, whenever and wherever it occurs.  It brings a sense of hope for the future after dark and dreary days. 

Not the owl from Simon King's website but
another Barn Owl brooding over her eggs.

There was great delight this week on the website of Simon King the naturalist, when the camera that he has in the owl nest box showed that when the female owl moved an egg could de seen.  Another form of new life bringing hope for the future of the owl population in that area of Somerset.  It reminded me of the dawn of creation when the Spirit of God hovered over the waters or as the Message Bible refers to it, 'God's spirit brooded like a bird ...'   A great error of the church generally is that we tend to think of the Holy Spirit and her work in terms of Pentecost, charismatic expressions of religion and big gatherings when we are 'in the right spirit' and utter the right words in prayer, then the Holy Spirit is manifest sometimes in strange and unusual ways like speaking in strange tongues, falling over, shaking or fits of laughter.  It's as though we need to follow a set formula if we want to see God's Spirit at work.  Yet at the very beginning of creation we see that God's Spirit was working, brooding over things.  The female bird broods over her eggs in order to give them warmth, protection, love and produce life.  She then continues to support and provide for her young.  With this picture in mind I can't help thinking of the Holy Spirit as the brooding, female expression of God.  So if I want to see the work of the Holy Spirit, I need go no further than my garden or look at my house plants.  Evidence of Her is all around.  They say that where's there's life there's hope.  Well I like to think of it as where there's life there's the Holy Spirit at work.  She breathes life wherever She goes.

My 'Christmas' cactus in February.

I also have another plant, a Christmas cactus.  It flowers every December.  The other day I noticed that there are a couple of buds on it ready to open.  It had already given an abundance of flowers in December so for this particular plant, this is out of season.  Another lesson - the Holy Spirit is at work in season and out of season.  She manifests herself and shows up when we least expect it.  When I was sorting out the house plants and ready to discard and throw away what I thought had died over the winter, I discovered that when I cleared away all the dead parts of a fuchsia plant, there were a few small new leaves just appearing - another lesson in how the Spirit of God renews and revives.




We miss so much when we limit God to certain gatherings and dates on the calendar.  He really is everywhere and the Spirit is continuously at work, not just at a time that the church considers there is some sort of 'outpouring' or revival.  God spoke and the Spirit brooded and creation came into being.  By observing creation, we see the Holy Spirit at work.  She continues to create life whether we notice or not but it's a shame if our preconceived, limiting ideas of Her blind us so we miss seeing the wonder of Her work all around us all the time.   

Going straight?

I must clarify from the start that this is not about living within the law or about sexuality.  It's about the direction of a journey.  When travelling, people usually prefer to go the quickest route possible.  That's why we have spent millions in making motorways so we can get from one place to another more directly.  We tunnel through mountains to save having to travel all the way around them.  We build bridges as a quicker way over waterways in order to cut the time of a journey.  And this is understandable.  Time is of the essence.  We just want to get to our destination without the hassle of actually travelling there.  


When people refer to 'the scenic route' it implies a rather round about way of getting to the same place and taking much longer to arrive.  The truth that we often miss is that it really is the scenic route.  The motorways, tunnels and bridges are for the most part just mile after mile of the same.  The scenic route however, possibly because of more twists and turns of the country roads, are usually more interesting.  We go through small villages and are able to refresh ourselves at some quaint country pub instead of the motorway service station.  There's usually less traffic also but as we know, this takes time and we don't always have the time to spare.  And that can seem a shame.


In comparison, when God does something, he takes great delight in not using straight lines.  Could you imagine a tree with straight branches and diamond-shaped leaves?  The only tree with straight branches I have seen is a one humans make of their family tree.  Or where is there a river that doesn't meander its way to the sea?  When we want to make a waterway we tend to dig straight down and as directly as possible between two points, using locks to move up or down along the stretch of the canal.  The twists and turns of nature is often breathtaking as we turn a corner and are confronted with some beauty of creation.  What a shame to miss that because we are in a hurry to reach our destination.  Many going on holiday try to think of the journey as part of the holiday and endeavour to find ways of enjoying it as such instead of getting over stressed by the actual travelling to get to the destination.


It's the same in life.  When I was younger, I had my future all planned out.  Then life happened!  Looking back it seems that my plans went right out of the window.  But if I'm honest I've had some wonderful experiences that I hadn't planned so I'm so glad that things didn't work out exactly as I thought they would or should.  We like things to go ahead as we plan without any complications or setbacks.  We have a goal and want to achieve it as soon as possible.  By being so intense on doing so we run the risk of missing an awful lot of wonderful experiences.  We are so focused on the end goal that we miss the 'now' moment.  When life has its twists and turns, I guess we should really think of it as God's way of doing things.  Doing things His way might mean living with the unexpected, having twists and turns, changing direction, travelling off the beaten track but so much more interesting and fulfilling.  

Seasonal Adaptations

The other day I was catching up with some of the programmes I had recorded as I was unable to watch them at the time they went out on air.  One of the programmes was Winterwatch.  The Springwatch team who do the programmes was in the highlands of Scotland for their transmissions where they had experienced bad weather just the week before.  It was a real winterland, lovely for postcards, everything covered in snow.  They were particularly looking to see how different species of creatures adapted to cope with the cold weather - snow and temperatures well below freezing for most of the time.

The common shrew

Of course we all know that nature changes and adapts in order to cope with the colder weather.  Many trees lose their leaves and plants 'die' only to be revived when the fine weather returns.  Some creatures hibernate during the winter months and arouse from their deep sleep when the weather gets warmer.  Those who don't hibernate adopt various strategies in order to cope.  The mountain hare changes the colour of its fur from brown to white so that it is better camouflaged in order evade the exceptional vision of the golden eagle looking for prey.  The ptarmigan not only changes its feathers to white but also buries itself with snow just under the surface where the temperature is actually a little warmer.  But what really called my attention was when the presenter (Chris Packham) explained about the common shrew.  It actually shrinks in size.  It deliberately shrinks its skeleton, heart, liver, skull and even its brain in order to require less energy and therefore not needing as much food thus giving it a better chance of survival at a time when food is scarce.  How amazing is that!?  I found this so hard to believe that I checked it out for myself online - and it is true.

We often talk about seasons of life and in spiritual terms seasons of the soul.  Sadly we don't always learn the lessons of nature.  When things change, they adapt and change to accommodate and cope with the different circumstances and surroundings.  Yet how often when it comes to our expression of faith do we just keep plodding on doing the same things as before?  Our excuse is that we've always done things that way.  If creatures in the wild kept on doing things always the same way, they would be in real trouble.  So they adapt.  We might decide to do things slightly differently.  We change the order of service, we sing a few new(er) songs, we begin some project or new programme.  There is often great need to change inside, the whole structure of how we live and do things, the very way we express our faith.  Sometimes we need to rest, do nothing, just be.  But sometimes it's necessary to actually get rid of things, strip back things that have become burdensome and are draining our resources.  Sometimes it's necessary that we become less - less important, less busy, less involved, less sure of ourselves, less ready to always have an answer.  Sometimes less is more. It isn't always about doing things differently, it's about being different deep inside.  Very often the change we need to make is not about what we do or where we go but about what we are.  The shrew has a great lesson that we do well to take notice of.  Maybe it's us that needs to change.  

My Word

I love word games - crosswords, code words, missing letters etc. etc.  Over the years, television has supplied us with a number of game shows involving words.  The one that has probably lasted the longest I think is Countdown, the daily words and numbers game.  People of my age will also remember programmes like Call My Bluff when three different definitions of a word are given and the opposing team has to guess the correct meaning.  My excuse for spending time on them, (if I need an excuse!) is that at my age, it helps to keep my mind active and ticking over.  Words are important, so much so that very often the first words of a baby are noted in a baby book and kept for posterity.  We use phrases like 'I give you my word' as a way of promising something or insisting that what we have said is true.  The words 'My Word' are used in exclamation to denote a certain amount of surprise or wonder.  


This week Richard Rohr, in his daily meditations has been talking about God's Word.  We think of God's Word as the Bible that we use today - the Old and New Testament.  Some Christians seem to be of the opinion that the Bible as we know it today is the sum total of God's Word.  (Roman Catholics have a larger Bible than Protestants as they include the books of the Apocrypha)  Some assume that if some story or word of wisdom is not in there then it's not part of God's Word.   We need to acknowledge that this Christian Sacred Text has not always existed.  So what happened before the existence of the Bible as we know it today, before the life of Jesus?  And of the Old Testament, what happened before Abraham or Moses?  Those who lived then, how did they know about God?  How did God make himself known to them?  Did he have nothing to say?


Richard Rohr quotes both Anthony of the Desert (251 - 356) and Thomas Aquinas (1224 - 1274) as saying that there are actually two books of Scripture, two books of God's Word.  The Bible is the second book being around for the last 2000 years or so.  The first book of God's Word is the natural world and has existed since the Big Bang 14 billion years ago.  In the first few verses of the Bible we read that God said ... ... .  He brought the whole universe into being by his word and yet we so often discard this expression of His Word in favour of the written word.  We think that God is 'contained' in the Bible.  He is but he is also much bigger than that.  Jesus so often used examples from creation to explain divine truths and we miss an awful lot of what God is saying and what he is like when we don't spend time contemplating his handiwork.  He first expressed himself in creation billions of years before humanity decided to put things in a book, long before the written word even existed.  Some would shy away from this saying it verges on paganism or New Age spirituality.  Yet Francis of Assisi wrote words that were translated and became known as the hymn 'All Creatures of our God and King'.  In the original he refers to creation as Brother Sun and Sister Moon, also referring to Brother Wind and Brother Fire and Sister Water and Mother Earth.  To this day he is revered for the way he saw God in creation.  The present Pope reminds us of this by taking his name to be known as Pope Francis.    


I can't help thinking that although it's good to read and know the Bible, it's not the whole story.  You can't contain God in a building nor can you contain him in a book.  As the children sing, 'My God is a great big God'.  There are so many expressions of him that we don't see when we are so intent in having our heads in a book.  There are so many lessons and truths that we miss when we think that it's all in 'the book'.  Richard Rohr expresses this sentiment when he says that each creature is a unique and distinct word of God with its own message.  Or as Meister Eckhart puts it so well, 'Anyone who truly knows creatures may be excused from  listening to sermons for every creature is full of God and is a book' - and he was of the Order of Preachers.  We refer to Jesus as The Word and say that The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  Before Jesus became flesh, God's Word became living creatures and plants.  He expressed himself in his creation.  When a person creates something, a picture, a piece of sculpture, some article of beauty or usefulness, they are expressing their thoughts and ideas in material or physical form.  You get an idea of them from their creativity.  And so God created the universe. If we look, observe and learn directly from what he has made we can learn so much about what he is like and what are his ways. He has great lessons and truth he wants to teach us if only we have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Everywhere, All The Time

This week I can't seem to get away from the fact that God is everywhere, all the time - maybe because He IS everywhere, all the time.  I guess the thought process really began last week when an online friend blogged about breathing God.  He talked about the Hebrew word for God, Yahweh, and how that really referred to breathing so that even just breathing you were actually saying the word Yahweh.  If you have 2-3 minutes you can read his blog entry by clicking here.  It is the post dated 6th November entitled Breathing.  The point I'm making is that all life breathes all the time wherever it finds itself.  In the beginning God breathed life into the universe, His breath, His presence into everything.  No life exists without His living breath and presence within it.  


Then this week another friend shared on Facebook the picture opposites saying in the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson that wise people see miracles in ordinary things.   It seems to me that we tend to go looking here, there and everywhere for some expression of the power of God when He's all around us in the ordinary, everyday life.  I have often mentioned and will always be amazed at the cycle of nature and the seasons.  The very variety and detail of creation is astounding and documentaries seem to come up with new things all the time.  Some people have a tendency to imply that God can be found only in certain places or certain situations or certain times as though you need to go through some formula (usually involving special music, readings or prayers) of conjuring up His presence, even asking Him to come and be with us when God Himself clearly says that He is in all thing all the time.  Jesus also told us that the Holy Spirit is within us.


A couple of days ago the thoughts on God being everywhere continued when I read the daily meditation of Richard Rohr.  He is a Roman Catholic Franciscan priest whose daily meditations give much food for the soul.  You can subscribe to receive his daily thoughts on the website here and enter your details at the right hand side to subscribe.  He quotes Boniface when he says, 'By God's power, presence and essence, God is the one whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.  God exists uncircumscribed in everything.' meaning that God is everywhere.  Boniface goes on to say:

God is therefore all inclusive.  God is the essence of everything.  God is most perfect and immense within all things but not enclosed, outside all things but not excluded, above all things but not aloof, below all things but not debased.  Finally therefore, this God is all in all ... ... Consequently from Him, through Him and in Him, all things exist.



He is so powerful, He is everywhere at all times.  He is so spectacular, He makes so many miracles look like ordinary.  His presence is alive in every breath of every life form.  God is in everything and everything is in God.  It's time to stop searching here, there and everywhere.  Wherever I am, He is.  Or as St. Francis said 'The whole world is our cloister'.  As long as I breathe, He is within me.  Or as the song says, 'This is the air I breathe, your holy presence living in me.'   He is Yahweh, the I AM, the ever present breath of life, everywhere, all the time.

Autumn days and ways

Even on wet miserable days like we've had this week it's hard not to be amazed, yet again at the wonderful colours of autumn.  It's nature's way of course, of preparing for winter.  It discards all the unnecessary parts, all the extra commitment of feeding the leaves.  I remember a few years ago when I was fully committed to life within the organised church and working 3 days a week as assistant manager at the charity shop connected to the local church, I had this strange sense that I shouldn't be taking on any more commitments.  In fact, I was feeling that I should be relinquishing some of the things that I had been doing until then.  I didn't understand it but felt that God was leading me in a different direction and he wanted me to be free of commitments, free and ready to go or do whatever he wanted.  Eventually I laid everything down and felt quite naked spiritually.  All my life I had been involved in church activities and projects and yet now, here I was without anything, just me and God, no frills or attachments.  And that's the way I am now but what an enriching time I'm having.  

From autumn I learnt that even though the leaves fall,
the tree remains standing.

The other day I shared a status on Facebook that said (in Spanish)  'From autumn I learnt that even though the leaves fall the tree remains standing.'  Sometimes it's necessary to shed commitments to some things but that doesn't mean that the tree is dead.  The commitments must go but the tree remains standing firm and upright and regains strength for a new spring.  Nature evolves through the seasons and we need to evolve also.  Personally I struggle when Christians don't believe in evolution.  Looking around at creation, it all speaks of evolution.  Everything evolves all the time, changing, adapting and moving on to new phases in their lives.  For me in recent years this evolution has been to shed religiosity, busyness and commitments,  change the way I feed my soul so I can stand before God stripped of all superficial appearances and doing stuff and just be.


The other great lesson of autumn is the harvest.  Those who are gardeners (or farmers working the land) will be coming to the end of a very busy time of harvesting.  It seems that in our garden every year at this time I rethink and plan what I want to do next year.  I clear out the old and harvested and decide whether I'll do the same again next year or change things a bit.  Sometimes when things haven't turned out as I thought or expected, then I change things.  I don't do the same thing again.  It would seem a bit foolish.  If it hasn't worked then why waste time doing it again.  As Albert Einstein said, you can't go on doing the same thing again and again and expect a different result.  What a waste of time and effort.  And yet on a spiritual level we so often do just that.  We do not always have the deep satisfaction we hope to find, there is always something missing.  We go week after week, still searching and hoping.  So often we come away thinking, 'that was good but ... ...'   


As young people we were full of enthusiasm - we were going to change the world.  Yet we haven't changed our own town never mind the world.  In the big picture, nothing seems to have changed.  If a business doesn't get the result it's looking for then it changes how it does things.  Yet in 2000 years Christianity has failed to bring the world to God.  Maybe we are doing it all wrong.  Maybe we should change the way we do things or maybe look at the seed we're sowing.  After all you reap what you sow.  Maybe we should take notes from creation and shed whatever might hinder us.  We need to change, evolve and adapt.  

Thoughts From Down Under

Earlier this week, my elder son Martin and his partner Lisa came to visit for a few days.  They have recently returned from 3 months travelling around Australia, from Melbourne up the east coast past Cairns and then across and down from Darwin through Alice Springs, Uluru (Ayers Rock) and back to Melbourne.  We were able to share in their adventure through their many photos and stories of their travels.  I found particularly interesting the stories of the aborigines and their beliefs.  They are an ancient race having lived on that land for over 40,000 years and so their stories of creation and other spiritual beliefs go back way beyond anything we as Christians may have.  We consider their stories to be just that - stories, myths and legends - not necessarily literally true but they cling on to their beliefs that have been handed down orally over thousands of years.  

A model of a coracle type of ark as on the ancient tablet

I also watched this week a programme about 'The Real Noah's Ark' where a professor and associates reconstructed a boat according to information on an ancient clay tablet.  It was a story of a flood with instructions on how to build a boat to save a man, his family and animals.  The instructions also interestingly said that the animals were to go in 'two by two'.  This particular tablet predated our biblical story of Noah by over 1000 years.  The boat to be built was actually round, more like a coracle than the ark we think of.  Archaeologists have discovered that in that region of the Tigris/Euphrates rivers there were many such great floods in ancient times and many would indeed make super-sized coracles to save their families and belongings.  It is thought that the Hebrew exile in Babylon was greatly influenced by such stories and maybe had some effect on stories that they also handed down to their descendants.  

Uluru (Ayers Rock) is a sacred Aboriginal site but so many
lack respect for the religious views and beliefs of others as
this notice and undeterred climbers show.

We look at other spiritual traditions and think of them as fables, myths and not fact while other religions often look at our holy book in the same way.  So it seems to beg the question -  how many of our Bible stories are just that, stories that have been told and handed down over generations in order to teach some spiritual truth.  Knowing how Jesus himself was a great story teller, it seems quite possible that much of holy writings, beliefs and spiritual stories (of many different religions) are just a way of trying to explain some truth that is often difficult to put into words but are not really to be taken literally.  (I can almost sense the fundamentalists putting their heads in their hands, gasping in horror and  declaring that I have surely 'lost my faith'!)  But why do we condescendingly smile at aboriginal stories and yet are offended if others do the same to us?  Who are we to go bulldozing our way in and telling someone whose tradition is over 40,000 years old that he is wrong and we are right?  The arrogance of such an empire spirit never ceases to amaze me.

The first plane that started the Flying Doctor Service

Another interesting story that Martin and Lisa told was of Rev John Flynn.  He had been appointed to minister in the outback.  In 1912 he established the Australian Inland Mission in order to attend to the spiritual, medical and social needs of those living in the outback.  He built hospitals but is mostly remembered for implementing with a friend what has become known as The Flying Doctor Service.  His concern was that people were so isolated and his greatest desire was to help people to connect.with others.  Over the years he managed to get an aeroplane and a pilot but the problem was how people could access this service.  Another associate invented a pedal radio and so in 1929 people could call on the Flying Doctor Service.  Later transistor radios replaced the pedal kind and people were then able to contact their 'neighbours' many miles away and families were once again in touch with each other.  John Flynn was a Presbyterian minister but rather than trying to get people to travel in order to gather in one building to worship together, he saw their need and tried to meet that need right where they were.  He cared for aborigines as well as white settlers whether they accepted his Christian beliefs or not.  That is why he is remembered to this day.  That seems like a Jesus thing to do - not being consumed with the idea of getting people to meet on the Sabbath/Sunday in the synagogue/temple/church building but rather seeing a need and working to meet that need.

Mmm!  Thank you Australia for the lessons you share.  Much to ponder.