sea of blue (-bells)

I finally got my essay done and went off in search of bluebells….

                                               

‘ah, heaven you are, pretty little bells, heralding Spring, beauty and all that is good in the world… bring your delicate beauty and fill our lungs with your breath…’

Multi cultural joy/’My Britain’

This is my Britain…. (at it’s best)….

Today I sat reading my beautiful poetry book in Trafalgar Square. Children in school uniform chatted happily whilst sitting on the sides of the fountain. Suddenly there was a commotion and at least 40 children whooped with the joy of recognition and shouted a name.

A woman with a lovely smile was beseiged by these lively children. As they rushed towards her – children who are Black, White (blond, brunette), Asian (hair flowing, hair covered) – their joy was united.

How much I loved Britain in that moment – this place where we can enjoy, respect, accept, and certainly expect differences, and yet learn to share our joys and sorrows regardless – not because the differences don’t matter (they do, they’re part of who we each are), but because as we share life together.

I believe it was Moltmann who was among the first to write that effective Interfaith work needed to be undertaken for shared causes and actions, not just for it’s own sake (not ‘we must get on together’, but ‘let’s do this/solve this (whatever) together’); and it was C.S. Lewis who wrote that Friendship had to be ‘about something’ (”…even if it is shared enthusiasm for white mice…”).

It is in sharing life, that we find points of unity, common feeling, connection, purpose…

…and when we share life with each other, we can get to move on to being people who, In the words of Paul McCartney, ’side by side, hand in hand, we all stand together’.

So thanks to the children and the popular teacher in Trafalgar Square this afternoon – you did my heart good!

(I just re-found this – wrote it in November! so here it is…finally!)

congrats to Carol Ann Duffy!

So proud to have a new Poet Laureate – and yes, it is, after all quite a new thing (in this day and age even…) to have a woman in the role.

all the best to her!

Below is a great poem of Carol Ann Duffy’s which articulates amazingly what it’s like in that difficult bit of life when we’re away from the one we love…

Words, Wide Night by Carol Ann Duffy

Somewhere on the other side of this wide night
and the distance between us, I am thinking of you.
The room is turning slowly away from the moon.

This is pleasurable. Or shall I cross that out and say
it is sad? In one of the tenses I singing
an impossible song of desire that you cannot hear.

La lala la. See? I close my eyes and imagine the dark hills I would have to cross
to reach you. For I am in love with you

and this is what it is like or what it is like in words.

Crazy Amaryllis

Someone gave me an amaryllis bulb for Christmas… I finally planted it and look what happened!

I haven’t seen the ‘candy-stripe’ flowers before. Why does God bother with so many designs? bit of a show-off perhaps?!

the winner takes it all

The temptation to react to other people can be so strong.

I am most myself when I decide to be who I am, regardless of how other people decide to be.

so when someone is mean to me, unkind, tells lies, I still decide to be who I am.

So I responded calmly. 

I do not raise my voice when they shout and wave their arms around. It’s not my way.

I challenged the lie. I state that I found a particular thing unkind.

But I don’t ‘get even’.

or maybe I do? because maybe getting even, or even winning, is not letting that person control who I am, how I behave, or who I become.

all you need is love?

I think maybe it’s true – all you need to get through is love… love that helps us to think of the other person’s view when we’re annoyed with them; love that makes us try to take account of other people’s needs; love that gives us strength to keep going when we feel like chucking it all in; love that makes us share so everyone has enough and no-one is isolated or hurt.

Why is it worth going on?

because being loved – deeply loved and known and understood – by God transforms everything… and when God blesses us with people who just ‘get’ us, love us, try to see our point of view even when we’re being annoying… that’s icing on the cake. and if we’ve even had a glimpse of that good stuff, it’s worth plodding on.

maybe it’s just too easy to write about love? despite a fair bit of crappy stuff going on in some aspects of life at the mo, I’m aware of being overblessed… there’s always the cake… and at the moment, there’s even icing on it! 

  (click to open window for this to play!)

pansies with attitude!

these pansies have some serious attitude… if you can’t quite see what I mean, squint as you look at the photo! should I feel safe with these in the garden?!!

doughnut miracle

If you’ve ever travelled on the London Underground (’tube’) you’ll know there’s an unwritten, unbreakable rule that one does not, under any circumstances, smile or acknowledge other passengers.                      

 You may offer another passenger your seat, or help with luggage, but not strike up conversations or smile at strangers. It’s just how it is.

 As I am generally just on the tube for the day (i.e. not a regular commuter), I often play a game to push this rule to the limits – I give a smile to another passenger and see what happens (usually nothing – btw, it’s a polite, British ‘acknowledging’ smile, you understand, not a huge grin!).

Imagine my joy yesterday then, when on the Central Line I glanced along the row of seated passengers and saw a young woman looking guiltily at a sugary doughnut she was holding. In a moment of miracle, we ‘caught each others eyes’ and both laughed! She took her first bite and looked back to me again, and we laughed again.

So that was my doughnut miracle… little moments of human connection and shared joy…even on the tube!

‘I am what I am’!

Today a ‘helpful’ friend who’s staying a while decided that being helpful meant picking up my precious piles of paper and ‘bits’ and wouldn’t stop despite polite entreaties.

I ‘have a system’ and rarely lose things. Why oh why should someone who visits my home feel the need or feel they have the right to insist on moving my things around, even throwing things away. (I will now have to go through bin bags – oh what fun.)

I felt mean and horrible when I had to ask for the third time ‘please stop, I won’t be able to find things if you move them around’. She meant so well and so intended to be so helpful.

No doubt I have character flaws, and perhaps needing to have my stuff left alone – even if it does look untidy – is one of them. I also procrastinate - I don’t enjoy the untidy bits, but I just don’t get around to clearing it up sometimes – other things, like friends and work, are much more important to me so that’s where my energy goes. I don’t share the house, so it doesn’t inconvenience anyone else if my stuff is in a pile somewhere.

Maybe someone else would have been delighted. I really, really wasn’t.

I may be alone in this thought, but seriously – being untidy does not have any moral high ground! It doesn’t actually make someone a ‘better’ person! This may sound obvious, but if you’re naturally tidy, have a think about it.

If you’re a tidiness freak, here’s a little message for ya!  – the untidy people in your life may be quite happy and not at all inferior for being untidy. It’s fine if you’re tidy – go for it, enjoy it, alphabetise your CD’s and iron your socks - enjoy! But we’re not all the same. I have so many other flaws to work on that really – being untidy is the least of my worres and trust me, when it comes to the end of the line, my big regrets in life aren’t going to be ‘I wish I did more housework’, or ’I wish I’d been tidier’ !

I’ve stopped apologising now. I’ve realised it’s time to ’come out of the closet’ (as it were) - I’m untidy and at least in my own home, that’s just how it is – I am what I am!

smell the roses…

Generally, in every day life, I’m pretty darned good at ’smelling the roses’ – I notice little beauties of life and even literally stop to smell the roses when I’m walking through a neighbourhood and plants overhang the pavement/walkway.

What i’m being reminded of just recently is that I need to do that in my whole life too.

I have things i want to happen in my life – and i get impatient. I try not to ‘go on’ to God, but I kind of end up being just a tad repetitive in my requests (sorry God!).

What’s so easy to miss though, is the love and blessedness in my life now.

To be looking forward impatiently to a future i dream of, and miss the fact that my life right now (though not untouched by pains) is actually blessed beyond my imaginings. In fact, I’m ridiculously over-blessed.

For my future hopes, I have felt God tell me so many times, ‘It’s all in hand’, yet I find it so hard to ‘leave it there’ and get on with today.

 

                                          

I want to be better at ’smelling the roses’ in my friendships, enjoy and savour every moment of joy that comes my way, to abandon myself to God in the ‘now’, to learn the lessons God is teaching me directly and through my amazing, beautiful friendships right now.

I mustn’t waste the lessons of now, or miss the fun of now, by only waiting impatiently for hoped-for future joys.