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

Not Here

Everything but the one I want!

Have you ever needed to buy a particular item, known exactly where to get it but when you get there, they haven't got the specific item you're looking for?  That happened to me this week.  One of the spotlights in the kitchen had gone off.  No problem, I thought.  I always keep spare light bulbs in a cupboard.  I had just about every type of light bulb except the one I wanted.  Typical!  Still not a great problem.  I knew exactly where to go to get one.  When I got there I looked along all the shelves of light bulbs.  The one I wanted was nowhere to be seen.  So I had to traipse the town looking for shops where I could buy a light bulb for the kitchen.  I eventually did get one but after quite a search.  I wasn't very amused.  I had better things to do with my time.

Searching for the baby in the palace.

But the searching did remind me of this time of year and when the Wise Men went in search of the new baby king they knew had been born.  They went straight to the obvious place.  A future king would be in a palace, right?  Wrong!  They left the palace and had to continue their search until they found Jesus in the most unlikely place for someone of his greatness.  The whole experience was nothing like they expected.



From birth to death (and beyond) God on earth was nothing like people had expected or were looking for.  He spent so many years working just like any other man, earning a living and caring for his mother and family.  During his years of ministry he was known more for his 'unsavoury' friends that his religious ones.  He refused to show his power as God in human flesh in order to convince people of his message.  After his death he was not in the tomb where his followers had expected to find his dead body.  Even after being disowned by his followers and killed, he was then seen cooking them supper by the lakeside.  He was not where people expected him to be.

It begs the question - where are we looking to find him?  He possibly and, dare I say, following on from the way he lived on earth, probably won't be in what we think is the most obvious place.  He'll probably turn up where and when we least expect.  Be prepared to be surprised by his presence in the most unlikely of situations.  

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. .  

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.

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.
. 

IMHO

It's that time of year when people voice their strong opinions on a couple of topics in particular.  We have just seen another Halloween when children enjoy the dressing up and it's ok for them to go knocking on doors expecting some sweet treat.  Opinions vary on religious grounds about elevating evil and witchcraft.  Some say it's all just innocent fun while others insist that there is nothing innocent about the occult.  Some don't have a problem with the spiritual aspect but are irritated by the interruption of their evening by the constant knocking on the door and the expectation of being given some sweets.  On the other hand, is all that sweet stuff really good for children or their teeth, apart from the expectation factor of 'I'm a child so you should give me a treat'?  Originally of course Halloween was about Hallowed Eve when the lives of saintly people no longer with us are remembered.  Strange how over time things get a bit twisted and changed - a bit like Christmas when some big bearded man in a red cloak now takes centre stage.

There was the same sort of reaction when Harry Potter first came to our consciousness.  There was a great deal of divided opinion among Christians in particular.  Some looked for some deep spiritual message in the stories while again others claimed that dabbling in the world of the occult is dangerous.  I have to admit that my own opinion was in the latter camp of opposition.  I think much of this was influenced by the particular group of Christians with whom I associated at that time.  Since leaving institutional church gatherings I have watched all of the Harry Potter films and have to admit that I have enjoyed them all and, yes, have found some worthwhile lessons in the stories.

The other, often divisive topic at the moment is about Remembrance Day and the wearing of poppies in particular.  Should we conform and wear the red poppy or should we make a statement by wearing a white poppy for peace.  It seems a shame that the whole original idea of the poppy of the British Legion has been hijacked by those who seem to have made it more about patriotism and Britishness than remembering the horrors of war and being determined to strive for peace.  Some very right wing elements have taken to selling cheap copies of the original British Legion poppy and instead of the money going to help soldiers and their families it is actually going to their own political coffers.  Some TV stations seem to oblige anyone appearing on their programmes to wear a poppy while ITV have accepted a difference of opinion of one their newscasters who made the decision not to wear a poppy on air (although she does support the whole idea and wears one herself on Remembrance Day)  You can see her valid reasoning here.  Meanwhile some British Muslim women have taken to wearing scarves designed with poppies to show their solidarity as British citizens and remember Muslims who died fighting for Britain in WW1.  You can read about it here.

I smile when I hear people say or see them write 'in my humble opinion' or just 'IMHO'.  It would be nice if that is what they really meant - humble and opinion.  But often that is code for 'I don't agree with you, you're wrong and I'm going to put you right!'  We have differences of opinion on most things in life not just the obvious ones I've mentioned but from Marmite to the value of space travel.  We differ in our views on politics, religion, the death penalty, the right for workers to strike, fox hunting, green issues, creation/Big Bang theory, gun laws, health services, immigration ... ... and so we could go on.  It would be a strange world indeed if we were all the same and agreed on everything - how boring!  Our opinions are always influenced by the culture we have grown up in and our experiences in life. Whatever my take on things happens to be, I have to accept that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I cannot force my opinion on others.  They have had a different life journey so their opinion is bound to be a little different.  It is good for me to be tolerant and remember that it is only my humble opinion and not some great truth written in stone.  And as I have also discovered in my own life, my opinions can change. 

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.  

Culture Club

This week began, Sunday 12th October, with a day that is commemorated in many parts of the world.  It remembers the day in 1492 when Christopher Columbus set foot on soil across the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Hispaniola.  Until now, in Spain and the Americas, the day has been celebrated as a day of victory and conquest of the Spaniards over the indigenous peoples they encountered, being a national holiday with parades, ceremonies and speeches.  Recently, however there has been a move to recognize, although not officially, that it should be remembered as a day of the indigenous minority and how they suffered near extinction at the hands of the conquistadors.  Two completely different cultures and religions collided with catastrophic results.



This week in parliament there has been a vote to recognize Palestine as a state in its own right.  There has been conflict between Palestinians and Israel almost without a break ever since the Israeli Declaration of Independence, signed 14th May 1948 that recognized Israel's national home in Palestine.  Since then, Israel has celebrated the day with a holiday for all its citizens.  Again there is a similarity that one nation celebrates a victory and take-over of the land of another nation, leaving them virtually without a land they can call their national home.  The differences based on religious grounds seem insurmountable.  And so we could go throughout the world finding tribe fighting tribe, nation fighting nation because they infringe on 'their territory'.


The problem seems to be that people of a specific culture are so often intolerant of people of another culture, looking on them as evil and needing to be got rid of however that may be.   Within most religions of the world there are different sects that interpret their sacred writings in a particular way.  We are aware of how much animosity there is between Sunni and Shi'ite, noting that terrorists have mercilessly executed Muslims who are not from their particular brand of Islam.  There are other groups of Muslims that differ because of the culture of where they are living.  The same can be said of Jews, depending on whether they are European or Oriental in origin.  Oriental Jews have in the past been persecuted by other Jews but recently have become accepted by the mainstream of their religion.  Of course the same thing applies to Christians.  The differences within the same religion, let alone differences with other religions is often due to the cultural differences of where people live.  Their customs as a nation often colour their perspective on their particular religion and their interpretation of sacred writings, causing different views and practices depending on which part of the world they live in.  If I had been born and raised in India, would I be an evangelical Christian or maybe Hindu?  If I had been born in Saudi Arabia, would I be Muslim?  If so, which strand of Islam would I follow?  Is it any wonder that non-religious people blame religion for most of the wars in the world?

  
 Thinking of different cultures, I was interested to discover that the members of the successful 80s band Culture Club have a very valuable lesson to teach us.  When they first got together to form the band, they realized just what a mixed bag they were.  The lead singer Boy George was an Irish transvestite, the bass player Mikey Craig was a black Briton, Roy Hay on guitar and keyboards was Anglo-Saxon and drummer and percussionist Jon Moss was Jewish.  (Taken from Wikipedia)  Each one of them came from a completely different cultural background and so they decided to reflect this in their name - they were a club of different cultures making harmony together.  Religious people might have considered them out on the fringes of society, outrageous in their dress sense, sexuality and behaviour but if we have eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts to understand, we can learn a very valuable lesson from their example. 

We need to ask ourselves which club of culture are we in, recognizing that our outlook and way of living is very much influenced by and reflects the culture of where we are living and how we have been brought up.  Wouldn't it be nice if different cultures could join together in harmony instead of killing and persecuting each other?  I might not be in a position of power to change things on a national scale or have any influence in an international debate but I can make a difference where I am.  I can live in the spirit of Culture Club, accepting others, not as wrong but just being different, making harmony instead of discord with people who might have a different idea of God from me or have different ways of.living and outlook on life.  Let's make heavenly music - together!

  

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.