“Now do you have time for me?”

“… In the busy times of the months and the years that have preceded self-isolation and social distancing, many things have been tucked onto the back shelves of my consciousness, some of them neatly in filing boxes, and others less tidily, just kind of jammed into bags and tied shut.

I am finding some of those things are opening in the silence and stillness. Some of them are calling to be attended to now, asking the question:

“Now do you have time for me?”

Many of these things are me-and-Creator projects … they are not things a family member or friend or partner or therapist can help with. They are things that can only be attended to in divine presence. They are only manageable when I open them with an infinite, omniscient, omnipresence alongside me.

Sometimes the call of those back shelves things feels a little bit like madness. Like insanity and over-whelmation knocking at the doors of my consciousness.

But I trust that it is not.

And I trust that when these back shelf things are attended with, social distancing will not equate to emotional or psychological distancing … and perhaps we might all emerge able to be more of our authentic selves than we ever were before 🙂 At a safe distance apart, but more honest, more vulnerable, more self-loving, more self-compassionate than we ever were before.

It is not easy.

The distraction of trying to re-establish pre COVID norms using online means is a strong distraction. Also the distraction of numbing myself with food, Netflix or news binges.

But, at the end of the day, the voices of back shelf things will keep calling out in the night and the day …

“Now do you have time for me?”

I know Creator is ready … and I pray that I be equipped with the courage and honesty to spend some of this precious time with my back shelf things. I pray that you give me what I need to be kind to myself in this time of close proximity with back shelf things.

Amen.  “

Above is an FB  post by Janaki Bandara – the daughter of a friend  which really touched me.

Despite all the time that is now available to me … I am ashamed of how I would have to answer the question my Lord is posing.

Time to pull.into still waters and drop anchor🙏

Led to Christ by ISIS — A Lawyer’s Prayers

I pass along to you an amazing story by Yuliya Talmazan of NBC News about how ISIS is – inadvertently – leading Syrian Muslims to Christ. Praise God! “Four years have passed since the Islamic State group’s fighters were run out of Kobani, a strategic city on the Syrian-Turkish border [northeast of Aleppo], but the militants’ […]

via Led to Christ by ISIS — A Lawyer’s Prayers

This post by Anna Waldherr strengthens and encourages a community reeling and grieving from horrific bombings – three churches and three hotels targeting those celebrating the Easter message.

“The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not put it out.” John 1.5

The Sacrifice

As we prepare to commemorate the greatest sacrifice of all, a moving poem by The Jolly Beggar caught my eye and my heart 💖

Blogger Dorah has beautifully captured the comparison of  the biblical Father -Son sacrifices in her retelling of the story of Abraham and Isaac in The Sacrifice — The Jolly Beggar

An excerpt is given below … but I suggest you read the whole for the full impact of the pathos of the sacrificial scene ….  so like the Sacrifice we will shortly commemorate.

……     When Isaac asked with mischief in his eyes,
“What trick do you have up your sleeve,
Father? An invisible lamb, I do believe!”

Slowly Abraham rose from the stones of the altar
Slowly he raised his face to his Father
Searching the heavens for a sign of reprieve
For now he could no longer deceive
The child who looked on him with trust
The child through whom his knife would be thrust  ……

Dorah maintains The Jolly Beggar and Dreams from a Pilgrimage.  blogs with poetry and prose that are really inspiring.

The Oughtabees :)

This bee caught my eye … freedom to choose  …. it’s the way things ‘oughtabee’ !!!  Fun poem by Rolli about being yourself.     See link below: 

A fun children’s poem about being yourself, by Rolli: “The oughtabees are circling! One’s sitting on my chin! Don’t listen to a word they say! Don’t let their poison in!”

via Poem For Children: Oughtabees — Discover

ARE YOU IN CONTROL?

I believe anyone who is on medication or seeing a Dr. needs to read this post.

All About Healthy Choices

When it comes to the length and the quality of our lives, there is no plan of action that guarantees results. That being said, there are choices we can make that increase the chances for longer healthier lives.

When Babe Ruth picked up his first baseball bat he wasn’t a natural home run hitter. When Michael Jordan picked up his first basketball, he didn’t gracefully fly through the air scoring basket after basket.

As each of us goes through life and starts a new “adventure”, our lack of experience often reveals an awkward “clumsiness.” SUCCESS isn’t a birth right; it is mostly acquired through dedication and persistence.

The plate spinner is frenzied early on as he watches plate after plate fall and break

…and with practice, patients and persistence he overcomes the learning curve and enjoys the benefits of achieving successful results…

Our health is no different. We were not…

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One World, One love, One heart …

In a reflective poem titled Passport Privilege (response to the Daily Post prompt – Passport,) Ginger has drawn our hearts to the terrible plight of refugees who do not have passports :

Yet some people will never have one
invaded by a super power
they are only issued a flimsy piece of paper
that cannot be used for travel

Exiled from their homelands
their invaders ensure that nobody recognises them
unless they acquiesce to their demands!
Can you even begin to imagine life without yours?

and to the plight also of citizens from troubled lands – and  developing countries like ours  – who are always viewed with suspicion.

Others may have a passport from a troubled country
Suspicion aroused wherever they go
checked too often and regarded with fear

and continues with a clarion call

“Only global citizenship will allow free travel!

So no more flag and no more borders!
Recognise that there is only one human race
with many different tribes  …”

echoing words spoken by my father so many many years ago to which alas I paid no heed, blind to his dream of no flags, no borders …. and there definitely can be no walls if  we ‘‘open to each other with warm embrace? ”   Is this not the Kingdom of God on earth that our Saviour spoke of?

Let us resolve to actively live, and work and pray for that day, when the dream of One World, One  Love, One Heart is realised.   A Video of another enlightened human – Bob Marley singing prophetically ‘One Love’ attached for listening pleasure and inspiration.

 

… I’ve found in you, My endless love

Beautiful thoughts and beautiful connection made on love that never ends

Salt of the Earth

I’ve found in you, My Endless Love.

Today is VALENTINES Day! What a fuss we make of the day. What celebrations! What a lot we spend trying to convince someone we love them!

Have we ever stopped to think what love is all about. Is it the love of a boy for a girl? a husband for a wife? a mother for her child? a teacher for the student? a pastor for his flock. There are so many kinds of love,

The Jesuit Philosopher and Theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin spoke of Love as the energy that moves the universe.

“Love alone can unite Living Beings so as to complete and fulfill them…..for it  alone joins them by what is deepest in themselves. All we need is our ability to love developing until it embraces the totality of men and the earth.”

“Driven by the forces of love the fragments…

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Asylum Roads

Andy Mersdon has penned some inspiring words – Asylum Roads – to be sung to the tune of what he calls the annoyingly catchy tune ‘Country Roads’ by John Denver .

It really highlights the plight of refugees risking their lives to a place they long to be …

Almost made it, across this ocean,

One more hardship, here comes the monsoon season.

Children die here, in their mothers arms

Will we find a nation, to stop this awful harm?

If we can’t help in any other way, let’s at least whisper a prayer daily for those on the high seas today leaving everything behind in search of asylum  …  refuge, … freedom.

Ocean breeze, take me there 
To the place, I long to be 
Safe asylum, distant refuge

Take me there
On pure blue seas.

Poetry is my aeroplane

Written in response to a Stanford University prompt to write new words (politically motivated) to an easily recognisable tune.  I have chosen John Denver’s annoyingly catchy tune “Country Roads” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vrEljMfXYo).

Almost made it, across this ocean,

One more hardship, here comes the monsoon season.

Children die here, in their mothers arms

Will we find a nation, to stop this awful harm?

 

Ocean breeze, take me there,

To the place, I long to be.

Safe asylum

Distant refuge, take me there

On pure blue seas.

 

One more shoreline, shines before our eyes

The Christian people will surely grant our lives.

But dark ships stop us and point us back to sea,

Reject our arrival and more horrors we will see.

 

Ocean breeze, take me there,

To the place, I long to be.

Safe asylum

Distant refuge, take me there

On pure blue seas.

 

You surely hear our…

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