Take Your Time

Walking into town this morning, I passed a young woman with a small child.  The woman was holding an empty pushchair, looking behind where the child was.  The small toddler was walking very slowly.  I smiled to myself thinking 'you can't be in a hurry when a small child wants to walk.'  The mother knows where she's going and just wants to get there but for the child, it's a whole new adventure.  She wants to look closely at everything and just take time to enjoy the freedom of walking and taking it all in.  No doubt some things were new to her and so had to be investigated.

Those of us who are parents or grandparents remember well the times when our children discovered things for the first time.  Oh the excitement; the look on their faces; sheer wonder at discovering something new.

It does seem a shame that much of that wonder of seeing life goes as we grow older.  We can so easily get to the point of 'we've seen it all before' and dismiss the awesomeness of small things happening all around us.  We are so often in a hurry just to get from A to B as quickly as possible.  Busy, busy, busy; deadlines to meet; so much to pack into our 24 hours.  And before we know it, the months and years have flown by.  

I must say that as a retired person, I do have the privilege of not having deadlines to meet or places I must be.  Still, it is a good reminder to occasionally just stop and notice the small details of everyday life.  Take time, take a deep breath and enjoy just being alive.  Don't let life slip by without taking time to enjoy it.   

Advent - Love and Joy

The third and fourth advent candles stand for love and joy.  John, in the first words of his gospel, tells us that the Word that was at the beginning of creation, became flesh and blood at the birth of Jesus.  He was God in human form and the way he lived and the things he taught were to show us the Father.  Look to Jesus and we see God.  His love is unconditional.  Until that point in time the Jewish nation had laws that they had to obey in order to 'please God' but Jesus shows us that God is love and he loves his creation no matter what.  He doesn't put conditions on us.  He just asks us to accept him, as we are.  We could never earn his love, although some seem to try and feel that if they comply with certain rules then they are more pleasing to God.  

Jesus came to show us that the special relationship that had hitherto been between God and the 'chosen' race of Israel, was now for all.  Again as the well known verse in John's gospel says, 'God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever believes in him might be saved'.  It is for everyone, without exception, without condition.  That is perfect love.  Love came down at Christmas!


A very popular song that we sing at Christmas is Joy to the World.  I think that the greatest joy at Christmas is not about the gifts received or given but when families can meet together and enjoy each other's company.  Of course I am well aware that not everyone is so blessed.  Some live alone and have no-one to share with, others live a long way away and are unable to meet up.  But when families can, it is indeed a great joy.  God's family is more than those who belong to a particular religion who might feel that they have the truth and are the sons of the Almighty.  Humanity is his creation.  We are all his children in the sense that he made us all.  Jesus came for all the world.  

God is love and it gives him great joy to share his love with his creation.  He shares his love with us in a special way through the birth of Jesus at this time of year and he also wants to share his joy with us, as we experience joy by sharing with others.  There will indeed be joy in heaven when this earthly family of humanity can live together and enjoy celebrating his love in whatever way they choose and are accepted in so doing.  God did not intend that his human creation should be a dysfunctional family, always arguing and fighting with each other.  His will is that all humanity can share together and enjoy what he has created on this planet, our home in the universe.  He wants us to live as one and reflect his unconditional love to each other.  May you know his love this Christmas and experience the joy of sharing and being together with others as God's big human family.

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.

Mixed Blessings

This week has been a week of looking towards various events.  At the beginning of the week I had a couple of appointments with the surgery's nurse to check my blood pressure and also to take a blood test to check my cholesterol level, any signs of diabetes and other necessary checks.  That's one I don't particularly like because it has to be done while fasting so from about 8 pm the evening before until after the blood has been extracted, it's a case of no food and only a little water if you're thirsty.  That means no hot chocolate before bed and no putting the kettle on for coffee when I get up!  

Although it doesn't really bother me too much, I don't look forward to being jabbed in the arm with a hypodermic needle, particularly as my blood vessels never seem willing to let my blood leave my body.  The nurse was very good and managed on only the second jab.  The results came back that I am 'normal'.  (For those who question the expression they were the doctor's words, not mine.)  Later this morning I have to go back to the surgery to get my yearly flu jab - another needle. 

I also had word this week about the date for my eye operation to remove the cataract from my right eye, as that's the worst of the two.  Later I hope to get the other eye done.  Then, so they tell me, I should be able to see without my spectacles, something I haven't been able to do for about 35 years.  At least I should be able to tell which bus is coming before it actually gets up to me.  Everyone who has had this operation tells me that it's 'a doddle'; but I still feel a bit apprehensive.

Brothers Martin (right) and Diego (left) on a previous visit

On the positive side my son Martin and daughter-in-law Lisa are visiting us this weekend.  It's always good to be able to spend time all together as a family and something we have looked forward to with pleasure.  To crown it all today sees the return of Dr Who on our television screens.  Any who regularly read my blog or who know me know that in our house we are avid Dr Who fans and have been for years.  I remember seeing the very first episode in the 60s.  So this week has been a mixture of looking forward to things, some really pleasurable and others not so much but still necessary.  

Lisa and me on a previous visit.

The thing is that the check-ups and jabs and operations, although not very pleasant at the time are really for my own good and will prove beneficial to me in the long term.  In life we can't have everything we like all the time.  Some people seem to be of the opinion that if you conform to certain religious practices, then somehow you are protected from unpleasantness in your life.  I'm sorry to disappoint those people .  Life is just not like that.  We have to take the rough with the smooth.  The best way is to accept the good things and enjoy every minute, savouring the pleasure so we have good memories for the future while accepting the not so good experiences knowing that they serve to make us stronger, wiser and more capable to cope with life.  Nothing lasts for ever so it's best to accept the not so pleasant things, knowing that there will be a time when they will be over and we will feel the benefit but remember to enjoy every minute of the good times while they are here.  Mixed blessings.

  

What do I think?

I have been greatly impacted by a couple of videos that I've seen shared on social media this week.  The first one was a deliberate ploy to see how people would react when they discover that someone had dropped his wallet.  A number of people were very honest and immediately called after the young man to tell him he had dropped his wallet.  However there was one young man who picked up the wallet, looked around but didn't see who had dropped it so he put it in his pocket.  He then proceeded to do some shopping using a credit card that was identical to the one that had been in the wallet.  He bought a number of things before continuing on his journey.  He kept taking the wallet out of his pocket and looking through it and also phoning presumably some friend.  The man was probably in his twenties and had one prosthetic lower leg that was clearly visible and so I thought that maybe if he was classed as disabled then maybe he was struggling financially, unable to hold a full time job and so this wallet that suddenly appeared would seem like a piece of good luck for him.  Eventually the video clip ended when he actually went to the house of the person whose wallet he had found.  He was taking it back to its owner.  He had not used the credit card from the wallet but his own credit card that was identical to the one that had been dropped.  He had not used any of the money from the wallet but all the time had used his own money.  How wrong I was to prejudge the young man as were many others including the person who set up the ploy in the first place.

            

The second video that left a lasting impression on me was by a lady called Yassmin Abdel-Magied.  She began by asking what people's reactions were when they saw her dressed with a hijab and typical 'Muslim' style clothes.  Hopefully most would not judge her just because she was obviously a Muslim but would be open to listen to what she had to say.  She went on to ask what they would think of her if she said she was a mechanic.  I guess a few smiled, thinking 'no way!'  She proceeded to take off her outer garment and hijab to reveal underneath the bright orange work clothes of a motor mechanic and put on a hard hat over her hair that was tightly fastened with a scarf.  She said that actually she designed racing cars and that this was her day job.  Surprise!    She went on to talk about how often we are not openly biased but that actually deep inside we still have prejudices and biases that are so hidden that we're quite unaware of them.  She went on to tell a story of a man and his son who were in a car when they had an accident.  The father died on impact and the son was rushed to hospital.  The surgeon came to see the young man before operating but said 'I can't operate on him.  That is my son.'  I must admit that my first reaction was that the man in the car must have been his step-father.  Yassmin then went on to say that the surgeon was his mother.  Ouch! I've done it again.

The thing is that my late husband was not English, European or from North America and I lived abroad for about 10 years.  I have mixed freely with many people of different cultures and all walks of life, from highly professional to those in abject poverty.  I also have a person from my extended family who converted to Islam a few years ago.  So I really consider myself to be totally non-biased and accepting of those from other parts of the world and other cultures.  So for me these two videos made me see again that there are sometimes things that are just part of who we are and how we think because we have been brought up in a particular culture  or from a part of the world with a certain way of looking at things.  For me it was a wake-up call to check my reactions to people and situations that might concern religion, gender, sexuality or disability.  I must never presume anything about someone without getting to know them.  As Yassmin says in her talk, very often our first reactions and judgements about people turn out to be wrong.  It was also a reality check for me to not think I'm above having such reactions and thoughts.  Some things are so ingrained in us that it is difficult to acknowledge their presence.  What do I think?  I think I'm not as free from bias as I thought I was.  There is still work to be done and room for improvement.  And you?  What do you think?

Please try to make time to watch the videos.  You'll find it worthwhile.

Planks and Splinters

How not to park a car

I guess most of us have pet hates, things that really irritate us.  One of my pet hates is people who think that the rules apply to everyone else but not to them.  As a driver I used to get annoyed when in a parking lot, there always seemed to be someone who didn't park properly between the lines so left it almost impossible for another car to park next to it.  Or drivers who never seemed to indicate where they were going, expecting others to use telepathy to guess which exit they were going to turn off at a roundabout.  Now, as a pedestrian those irritations have been replaced it seems by others.

Blocking the aisle at the supermarket

The other day, my son and I were in town doing a bit of shopping.  We had been to the supermarket and were walking back to the town centre when my son said,'Do you realise that this morning you have done two of the things that you get irritated about when other people do them?'  Me?  Never!  I wouldn't!  Then he began to gently remind me of two incidents when I had suddenly stopped in one of the aisles at the supermarket blocking the whole passage with my trolley, making the lady behind me stop suddenly and unable to pass me until I moved.  Then later on our way into the town centre I moved across the pavement in order to cross the road but in doing so walked right in front of somebody else without looking or realising that I nearly bumped into them.

Mrs Do-as-you-would-be-done-by

The truth is that if that had happened to me I possibly would have made a comment that people should watch where they are going and that  people wander around in their own little world oblivious to those around them.  And I had done just that.  Guilty as charged.  They are not grave sins or criminal activities but little niggles about thoughtlessness towards others.  The thing is that I hadn't even noticed that I had done exactly the things that I moaned about when others do them.  The words of Jesus came to mind about seeing the splinter in the other person's eye when I have a plank in my own.  Or the character from the children's book The Water Babies, Mrs Do-as-you-would-be-done-by.

Oh dear!  How easy it is to notice flaws and failings in others and how we delight to point them out and yet how often we are guilty of similar, if not the same flaws and failings.  Somehow we don't see our own faults, only those of others.  Something I read many years ago that said that we should be prepared to forgive and overlook the faults and flaws of others because they have to do the same for us.  Ouch!  I am humbled and reminded that no-one is perfect, myself included.

Happy Christmas

2014

Dear family and friends

Home grown strawberries

After the storms of last winter, we had a very wet spring but a glorious summer before the autumn colours began showing.  It seems that because of the wet spring, we had quite a harvest of berries in the garden – strawberries, raspberries and blackberries.  It is a good feeling to eat things that we have grown fresh from the garden.

Ayers Rock

In August, Diego and I had a very pleasant few days break in the Isle of Wight.  Martin and his partner Lisa, meanwhile had a 3 month break travelling in a campervan in Australia.  When they arrived back we were able to share in watching so many lovely photos.  They left their jobs (in IT and managing a Charity Drop-in centre respectively) in order to do the trip and Martin is now back in the same office in Cheshire but opted to work only 3 days a week so that he can also  spend some time volunteering for a charity.  Diego had a part time job but then found himself out of work for a short while and is now employed again in a warehouse.  We are all keeping well (as long as I keep taking the tablets!). 

Shanklin Old Town Isle of Wight

Martin and Lisa will be joining us for a few days before Christmas and we will be celebrating by eating both Argentinian (empanadas, milanesas de pollo a la Napolitana and alfajores) and the traditional English roast turkey – not all at the same time!  Christmas Day will be spent quietly just Diego and I together chilling out and enjoying a relaxing time.

We wish you all a very Happy Christmas

and a Blessed New Year

Mavis and family

Feliz Navidad

2014

Queridos familia y amig@s

Frutillas de nuestro jardín

Después de las tormentas del invierno pasado tuvimos una  primavera muy lluviosa pero un verano  glorioso antes de que empezaron a aparecer los colores hermosos del otoño.  Parece que por la primavera tan mojada tuvimos una buena cosecha de frambuesas, zarzas y frutillas en el jardín.  Le da a uno una buena sensación al poder comer cosas frescas que nosotors mismos hemos cultivado en nuestro jardín. 

Martin y Lisa en Australia

En agosto, Diego y yo pasamos unos días muy lindos en la Isla de Wight (a la costa sur de Inglaterra).  Martin y su amiga Lisa mientras tanto pasaron 3 meses viajando por Australia.  Al llegar de vuelta pudimos disfrutar mirar a tantas fotos tan hermosas.  Dejaron sus trabajos para poder ir de viaje y Martin ahora está de vuelta en la misma oficina en Cheshire pero eligió trabar solamente 3 días por semana porque quería tener tiempo para ayudar voluntariamente a una sociedad benéfica..  Diego tuvo un trabajo de 3 días por semana pero se encontró por un tiempito sin trabajo pero ahora está trabajando en un almacén.  Estamos todos con buena salud (¡con tal que yo siga tomando los remedios!)

Pueblo antiguo de Shanklin, Isla de Wight

Martin y Lisa estarán con nosotros por unos días antes de Navidad y estaremos celebrando por comer comida Argentina (empanadas, milanesas de pollo a la Napolitana y alfajores) y también la comida tradicional inglesa de pavo al horno - ¡pero no todos al mismo tiempo!  El día de Navidad Diego y yo lo pasaremos tranquilos juntos los dos y disfrutaremos un tiempo de descanso.

Deseamos que tengan una Navidad muy 

Feliz y un Año Nuevo lleno de Bendición.

Mavis y familia

Living In Hope

It's amazing how in town suddenly a number of shops have opened up selling just things to do with the Christmas season.  Everywhere you turn someone is trying to sell you wrapping paper, novelties or cards.  One such shop had its name painted in bold letters - All You Want For Christmas.  Ah!  That sounds good!  I went in to browse and see what they had that I might want.  What I would really like is a nice big fat cheque made out to my name but I couldn't see one anywhere!  But the idea of getting what you want set me thinking.  Hopes, wants, expectations. 


Advent is a time of looking forward with hope.  Children are encouraged to write a letter to Santa Claus saying what toys and games they would like to receive.  Some write long letters with long lists of things they want. Others are not so fortunate.  A few days ago I shared a post on Facebook about a young 10 year old boy called Santiago who lives in a part of Bahia Blanca in Argentina.  He was given a sort of wooden chopping board by his parents for his birthday and his reaction was a big smile and 'thank you' and he said that he looked forward to using it to cut up food.  It is the custom to use a wooden board to serve up and use at a barbecue instead of the usual plate so now he had his very own.  He was then handed another gift that his very poor parents had managed to save up for.  His reaction is priceless as he opened it to discover not a wooden tablet but a tablet that he had really hoped for but knowing how poor they were never expected in his wildest dreams that he would ever receive.  You can watch the video here but be sure to have your tissues at hand.


In our home for many years we have made wish lists.  Maybe it's because of working in shanty towns and seeing how little some people have to live on but to us at least it's preferable to give/receive something that is actually wanted and hoped for rather than something that will be put in a drawer and never used or recycled.  We do put enough items on the lists so there is a choice and we still don't know what we will actually receive so the surprise element is still there.  But it seems to me that so many of the lists to Santa are written with more than just hope.  Things are not just hoped for but actually expected to the point that parents have been known to search all over and pay anything in order to get the required gift.  Is this the real hope that is enshrined in Christmas?  Is this the advent message that we are giving our children?   Businesses are hoping for more profit this year than last year.  It seems that hope for the world has become a matter of wealth and ownership of material things that tomorrow are discarded.  As the Queen song says 'I want it all and I want it now.'


God came to humanity on that first Christmas, not as a big Santa Claus laden with toys and gifts, but as a baby to bring real hope to the world and a way to live, sharing love with all.  Enjoy the gifts but remember why we give presents to those we love. Beyond the material gifts, what is our hope this Christmas?  What are my hopes for myself and my family?  Success at work, health, wealth, more things or something money can't buy?  Of course we need things - that's essential in 21st century Britain but we are really rich in a deeper sense if our hope is in something or someone beyond material wealth.    

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere I go.  Shops have had their festive decorations up for quite some time.  Every time you go into town you can see people carrying boxes, wrapping paper and all things to do with the Christmas season.  As far as I am concerned, the cards have been bought and written - well most of them anyway.  Some need to be posted early to go abroad, others to different parts of the UK and others I can deliver by hand locally.  Presents are either bought or ordered.  Some are already wrapped but still quite a lot to do.  Tomorrow (Sunday) is the first Sunday of Advent.  The last day of November is when I usually sort out the tree and decorations ready to be in place for the 1st of December.  So I guess you could say 'it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas'.  Or is it?  At least it's like what we in the west have made it become.

It's actually nothing like the very first Christmas.  How different!  There was no tinsel or decorations, no turkey dinner with family, no relaxing and being entertained.  The King of Kings was not surrounded by servants or lived in a palace with all the comforts of the hierarchical, rich lifestyle of those in authority.  Paul in his letter to the Philippians describes it as God emptying himself into the physical, human presence of his son.  This emptying was expressed by being born illegitimately to a young teenager in a place that was kept for the animals.  No family or friends to visit and celebrate.  Instead he was visited by lowly workers doing the night shift and foreigners who probably didn't even speak the same language as Mary and Joesph.  The subsequent years of his infancy were spent as a refugee, an asylum seeker, an immigrant in a foreign land.  He knew from experience what it was like to be hungry and a stranger and to be fed and accepted and taken in.  He had lived life in the lowly margins of society.  He emptied himself until there was no more to give.  

Having said all that, I do love Christmas and I love to celebrate as we do now with decorations, great food and exchanging of presents with loved ones.  And I don't suggest for one minute that we should stop doing that.  Be happy, enjoy time with family and friends, taste the good food, relax and enjoy the break but spare a thought for those who maybe have to work over the holidays.  Be thankful for what we have but remember that there are some who don't have a place to stay or family to share Christmas dinner with.  Some people now, instead of sending and posting Christmas cards, are giving the money they would have spent on that to a charity in order to help feed the hungry or give a bed to the homeless.  I must admit that I haven't done that, (I like the idea of greeting friends with a card) but I admire those who do. 

An activity that many engage in over the months leading up to Christmas is the filling of a shoebox with goodies to send to a child in some far away place.  This week I read of a young Filipino girl who 14 years ago received a shoebox at Christmas sent from a young boy in America through the very well known Operation Christmas Child scheme.  She was so grateful for that gift that she later tried to contact the boy to thank him.  She was unsuccessful but later in life, she was able through the social media to make contact with him .  Their friendship grew until recently they got married and for wedding presents they requested that people donate shoeboxes for the charity to continue the work that had brought them together.  You can read the full story here.

I guess that to make it really look like Christmas, we should enjoy the festivities but also give something of ourselves, empty out a little of the much that we have in order to help others, a kind of antidote to the madness of Black Friday.  That is the real message of Christmas and what God meant Christmas to look like.  'Insomuch as you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me.'  Emmanuel - God emptying himself into every walk of life for all people everywhere.  That really is something to celebrate!


   

Transformers

Turbo snail

I was looking for a Christmas gift for the small son of a nephew of mine.  There is so much to choose from!  I eventually found a book about an ordinary garden snail who dreamed of being fast and having adventures.  One day he had an accident with a vehicle on a busy road and then discovered that he had been transformed into Turbo.  He could now race along as quickly as other creatures.  The book continues describing some of the things he got up to.  

One of the many transformers

There are lots of toys that actually can be transformed into something else - transformers.  We all know the films that are so popular among children (and dare I say grown-ups also?)  They look like ordinary vehicles, a car, lorry, pick-up truck, helicopter or some other vehicle and drive around with their human friends.  Then when there is trouble they suddenly transform themselves into some life-saving, human- defender and protector and of course always save the day.  The thing about each of these examples is that there is no need for any add-on bits.  You only need what is already there to transform the toy from  an ordinary object into some super being.

Maybe as grown-ups we could take a lesson from the children.  We are always searching for something else.  We think that 'if only I had that opportunity' or 'I wish I were more like so-and-so'.  Paul, writing to the Romans says that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  He didn't advocate that we go looking for add-ons.  The children sing a song, 'And I just thank you Father for making me me'.  Again the children teach us wisdom in their simplicity.

Ainsley Harriott with chefs and contestants

It reminded me of the programme that used to be so popular on TV - Ready, Steady Cook.  The competing chefs could use basic ingredients like eggs, milk, flour, herbs and spices but for the other ingredients, they were only allowed to use what the contestants had brought them.  They had to make some interesting, tasty and innovative meal with what they had been given.  They couldn't bring any hidden extras or their favourite special ingredients, just what had been handed to them.  Sometimes they apologized saying that with this or that extra ingredient they would have made such and such but they still managed to come up with a great dish that their contestant enjoyed.  I enjoyed watching the programme as it gave me some good ideas for something different but also, I think, helped people to realize that you could do something good just with what you already had.

The other day I watched Neil Diamond on TV and was struck by a song I hadn't heard before.  It is basically a love song but I couldn't help thinking of it as a worship song and singing it to God.  It's called The Art of Love: (Try thinking of God as 'she'.)

She said, it's time to teach you the art of love.
She said we're gonna reach to the heart of love.
A place you never knew,
A place that lives somewhere inside of you.

Neil Diamond

You made me see I'd have to be
A brand new man, he lives in me.
So here in me is where I began. 

You showed the kind of lesson I can't erase.
You showed a way to get from that lonely place
To where love comes alive
And you'd be waiting there when I arrived.

The truth was clear,
Love's not a place you go to find.
It lives in here, just leave it space, give it time.
I learned that I could stumble and maybe fall.
I learned in being humble I'd have it all.
A brand new way to live,

God makes each of us the unique person we are and transforms us not by adding bits on or taking bits off but by renewing what is deep inside.  God, who is true Love, lives inside of each of us.  We don't really need to go anywhere to look for Him.  He is already within  our innermost being.  We just need to look within and be transformed into the person He wants us to be.  We are the people we have been waiting for.  All we need is to look inside ourselves and go with what the spirit deep within us is saying.  Transformers, not by adding extras and becoming different people but to be the people He made us to be with what He already has given us.  Transformed and come alive by the power of His love that is inside. .  

Remembering - Then and Now

During these days of remembering, I have been doing just that.  I was born during WW 2 and so have limited actual memories of my own but it's strange how some things stick in your mind.  I have a vague recollection of having to leave the house and take cover in the shelter outside whenever the siren sounded because planes were flying overhead at night.  As a toddler, I wasn't aware of the real danger.  It was more of an adventure.  I remember the blackout blinds at the windows and when we had to put the lights on as little as possible.  I remember the gas lights on the walls of the living room that seemed to cast strange shadows everywhere.  There are other memories of gas masks and sirens.  Even after the war had ended, I would run into the house afraid whenever an aeroplane flew overhead.  Over time things change and we do forget about disturbed nights when you had to run for shelter.  Nowadays we tend to use excessive energy on lighting our homes (and our paths, driveways and gardens)   Aeroplanes overhead now signify holidays abroad and good times, certainly nothing to be afraid of.


My Dad was a miner and so his work was deemed necessary to the war effort so he didn't join others as a soldier.  Instead as well as his regular job as a miner, producing the necessary coal, he had to do some work as a civilian so he was enlisted in the Fire Brigade while one of his brothers had to work as a porter in the hospital.  Two jobs but paid for one, all to help the nation.  Nowadays people might have two jobs for purely selfish gain to supplement their income in order to acquire more stuff and have more exotic holidays.  Money was always a bit tight so Dad used to make our toys (in the little spare time he had)  We had a beautiful, big dolls' house, a rocking horse and scooters each, all made out of wood while Mam would make things to put into the dolls' house.  How things have changed over the years.  How many children (or parents for that matter) would be quite content with homemade toys?


I remember one day my mother heard through the grapevine that there were some bananas for sale at the greengrocers in the town.  So off she went with all the family's ration books to use our food coupons to buy some fruit.  We stood in the queue for about half and hour and  were rewarded with the opportunity of buying a pound (weight) of bananas.  You could only buy what your coupon allowance permitted.  What a difference now!  I can go to the local supermarket and buy how much I want of whatever fruit or vegetable I like from just about anywhere in the world whenever I want.  I don't need to queue for half an hour.  I just go around and help myself to what I want.  I can even get it delivered to my house.

My Mam, Dad, elder brother and sister (my younger sister was born almost at the end of the decade) and me all lived with my grandma in a large 3 storey house along with my great grandma, four generations all together.  Next door to us another family of a woman and her 3 children also lived with relatives.  Her husband and my uncle (my mother's brother) were away doing their bit for the country but I can remember clearly the day my uncle arrived back and I saw him for the first time.  Sadly the gentleman whose family lived next door didn't make it.  So while we were happy there was a poor widow with 3 young children facing the future without the man of the house.  One of my Dad's brothers had been a prisoner of the Japanese on the infamous Siam railway.  He also came home safely and went on to live well into his 90s.  It is not just the soldiers who suffer.  For every one who doesn't make it, there is a family who has to face the future without him/her.


Lest we forget.  Let's remember the struggles, the danger, the make-do-and-mend attitude, limited resources in many areas of life, the challenges faced on a daily basis by those on the front line and those who remained at home to keep things ticking over.  Thank God for those who survived.  Cherish what we have now, taking nothing for granted.  Everything has a price.  We live the way we do today because others paid a high price.  But if we don't remember and learn, if we go on fighting wars and killing each other, if we take all our affluence and abundance for granted without a second thought, then they gave their all for nothing.  They did what they did so that it wouldn't happen again.  They aren't here to struggle for us again.  It's up to us to honour their memory by living and striving for peace and to learn to share the one planet we have with tolerance.  One world, one humanity, one life.  Let's make it work LEST WE FORGET.
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Nothing Times

It's been one of those weeks when nothing much has happened - a nothing week.  Last week the weather was like summer and so I got loads done and sorted in the garden.  By the weekend I felt that I had achieved a great deal.  This week has seemed quite the opposite.  Right from Monday, the storms came with horrendous wind and rain.  Although since then we haven't had the strong winds, the rain has persisted on and off all week, raining at some point every day so no gardening for me this week.  (I do it for pleasure, not out of obligation!)  You know there are times when you've been busy all day and yet looking back, you can't really see any difference.  It's as though you haven't done anything at all.  Well this week has been like that!  I've been as busy as last week but I can't see where.  There is no big sigh or relief or sense of achievement just the usual -  cleaning, washing, ironing, shopping and cooking..


I guess you could say that life has just been plodding on as usual - much of the same, ordinary, non-spectacular, hum-drum life activities.  Why is it that the ordinary seems so boring and unappealing?  Why do we crave the spectacular?  I am as guilty as the next in this.  I look at the facebook posts of friends and read the main heading of an article, looking for something that grabs my attention.  It's the same with newspapers and magazines.  Editors know that clever headlines can very often raise their readership figures, the more sensational the better it seems.  Films or TV programmes show the most intriguing bits in their adverts and trailers, making us curious and drawing us in, whetting our appetite and teasing us to want to see more.  Inevitably programmes that are part of a series, leave us with a cliff-hanger so we'll be sure not to miss next week's episode.


Most of life is not the sensational, headline-grabbing experience, yet we want that more than anything.  We yearn for some out-of-this-world experience believing somehow that it will give us some special insight into some life mystery.  Religious people search out events that might give them a spiritual edge over others, a sort of spiritual one-upmanship.  The truth is that plodding along in the ordinary is so often what shapes us and hones our senses to what goes on around us.  The spectacular is 'nice' and 'good' and yet somehow distant, way out there, with no or little connection with what we need to do on a daily basis.  It reminds me of Jesus and his disciples on what has become known as the Mount of Transfiguration.  The disciples had a great experience.  WOW!  What an experience - like touching the immortal, so much so that they wanted to stay there.  They wanted to build shrines so they could go back again and again to relive the experience.  How many of us have felt like that after some great meeting where there has been a great presence and outpouring of the Holy Spirit?  Jesus' reply was that now they had to go down from the mountain top experience and deal with real life where people were desperate for help and hope.


Special events, visitations or spiritual encounters are wonderful but don't let's get carried away.  They are not the norm or to be lived perpetually in a state of 'other-world'-iness.  So I thank God for the ordinary.  That's where I need to be - at least most of the time.  That's where life is really lived, in the hum-drum, sometimes boring, unspectacular plodding on.  As my mother used to often observe - we shouldn't be so heavenly minded that we're no earthly good.   

Making Space

It's that time of year when the nights are closing in and the temperature begins to drop a few degrees, when we need to make sure that everything is ready to withstand the winter and whatever bad weather it throws at us.  The trees are shedding their leaves and it's time to trim back, get rid of dead flowers and branches and generally tidy up and sort out in the garden.  For me, part of that preparation for winter has been to give the garden sheds and fence their annual top-up coat of paint/creosote.  This year I've been doing some sorting out in the sheds.  Oh dear, how we accumulate 'stuff', a lot of which I really don't know why it's there. It's so easy to just take something we don't really use much and shove it in the shed, out of sight, out of the way.  At the bottom of our garden we have a very old brick bunker/shelter, possibly used during the war for a family to keep safe(r) during air raids.  When we moved into the house 5 years ago, the shelter had quite a few old doors, wooden posts and other bits and pieces in it.  A couple of weeks ago a very good friend and neighbour from down the street (Pete Davies for those who know him) and his teenage son (Ben) cleared it all out for me .  So that set me off to clear out our other sheds and declutter.


It's amazing just what you find when you have a clearout.  I discovered a small garden hand fork that I had totally forgotten about.  It had been a gift from a friend when we moved in here and was part of a set with secateurs and small trowel.  It was special for me as after years of living in an upstairs flat, where on opening the door to go out, you saw stairs, now I could open the door and see a garden.  I use the secateurs and trowel but can't remember the last time I used the fork - years probably.  The truth is that some things that we think are lost are not really lost at all, they are just abandoned and forgotten underneath a pile of clutter.  When we begin to move things and get rid of all the carefully kept rubbish that we have accumulated, we can come across something we thought had gone forever but all the time it was just waiting there for us to rediscover its whereabouts.

What a difference a declutter makes!

On property programmes they often tell clients that it is best to declutter if they want to sell their homes more quickly.  The truth is that potential buyers want to see the house and not the present owner's personal clutter or family history depicted in photos.  They want to visualize how they would fit in and how they would adapt it to their own needs.  On a spiritual level. many people express that same thought when they say that they want God/Jesus but not the church.  Just like the potential house buyer, they are really not interested in all our personal religious add-ons of our particular preferred expression of faith.  Just like in the bible verse when some people approached one of the disciples saying, 'We would see Jesus'.  Really people just want God and not have to accept all the other bits that some religious people seem to think is a part of God.  They present the gospel as a package deal, you can't have God without all the extra do's and don'ts.  And frankly, they're not buying. 

Over the past few years I have had much spiritual clutter that I have got rid of in order to see God more clearly.  Some people like to live in clutter.  That's not necessarily wrong but it can often cover something that we need or have been looking for.  Much of the spiritual stuff that we accumulate is actually other peoples stuff that is not necessarily what I need or want. and I need to see God for myself, not through the eyes of someone else.  If my relationship with Him is personal as we all claim it to be, then it must be my relationship and not just a copy or cloned duplicate of how someone else tells me it should be.  And so I continue to declutter my life and rediscover treasures.  Less is more - less religious 'clutter' and more God.  We have much to consider and learn from creation and on a regular basis 'declutter' the bits that no longer serve the purpose, discard them and make way for new growth in a new season.

The Way I See It

The two people were chatting while waiting at the bus stop when suddenly the younger one, focusing on a young girl passing by said in a low voice, 'Just look at that!  What a mess!  She looks awful!'  The older woman smiled and replied, 'When anyone criticizes what you wear, you always say that people should feel free to wear what they like.  So obviously she's wearing what she likes.'  The younger one conceded with a smile, saying that she wouldn't wear it but then she has a different fashion sense.  We might think someone looks nice or not because of what they are wearing, while they might see it differently.  As the saying goes, 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'.  


On a less flippant note, my nephew's young son often likes to play at role reversal - his father/grandmother being him and he being them.  He really is rather good at remembering things that they have said or done and playing them back to them as he sees it, reliving situations and conversations.  It really is an eye-opener on just how he sees them and how he interprets what they say.  Children so often manage to encompass in their playing what sometimes goes unnoticed to us.  Things that we don't give a second thought about might come across to them as something they take notice of and remember sometimes in great detail to the point that we can wonder, 'Am I really like that? Is that how I said that?'.  Children have an innocence that penetrates through all social etiquette and niceties to reveal just how things really are, at least as they appear to them.


We all see things differently, simply because we are all different, unique.  We cherish our uniqueness yet at the same time struggle to accept another person's different approach and opinion.  Often when someone says, 'The way I see it ...' they really mean that they think the other person is wrong and they will tell them exactly how it is and what is the right way.  We can become quite intolerant of those who don't do or think as we do, thinking smugly, 'They really don't have a clue and they are just so wrong'.  There is a built-in sort of arrogance that we can't be wrong, it must be them.  Is there not just a possibility that both are right - in their own eyes?  It all depends on how you see things.  This often can depend on your circumstances, your cultural background, your emotions and feelings at a given moment.  It seems strange that restaurants. shops, the entertainment business and so on cater for our different views and tastes in food, clothing, holidays, home decor, hobbies/interests and TV viewing so why, oh why, is it so difficult for us to accept that people just might have a different spiritual opinion from us?  When it comes to God, it seems, we are always and totally right as though somehow we are in the privileged position of having a monopoly of the truth!


I remember one holiday in Scotland when we climbed up a hill through some woodland.  Every so often there was a gap in the trees and a seat where you could rest awhile and take in the scenery.  What we discovered was that we saw different things at different stopping points.  Some objects became hidden from view while others became clearer.  The overall picture was constantly changing depending on where we were on the hill.  That has always remained with me over the years as an important life lesson.  People are different, each one unique, as we so often like to say.  So why is it so hard to accept another's point of view, another way of looking at things, another angle, another's belief system or spiritual leaning?  God has an overall view while, as the apostle Paul says, we only see in part.  In the same passage, Paul says that as a child he thought and acted in a certain way but as he grew, his thoughts changed.  We are constantly changing as our view on life changes, as we experience different situations. 

So let's show a little more tolerance and acceptance of others.  At least, that's the way I see it. (Maybe someone will tell me I'm wrong!).