"Diamond"

"The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest."
(St Thomas More)

My sister's mother-in-law passed away last weekend. I've often crossed swords politically with my brother-in-law Gordon, but I know he feels the loss of such a staunch and enduring heart very keenly. She was his anchorage, as my own Mum was to me; in turn, she was immensely proud of his achievements across the world. Evelyn was 97 years old. Gordon's father passed away when she was still quite a young woman, and she married his stepfather, Maurice, more than forty years ago. She would jokingly refer to him as her "toyboy"; he now survives her, aged 94.

Evelyn was a true Yorkshire lass, originally a mill-girl. She never moved away from her beloved birthplace, often called "God's Own County", although she and Maurice managed to travel as far afield as Africa and the Far East to visit Gordon when he was working overseas. Today's funeral service, near to her home village, will be a quiet affair. Gordon maintains that she was an ordinary person who led a quiet life. Yet her extraordinary devotion to her family, Gordon and Maurice and her two step-children, and to her friends and home spoke volumes about her. She didn't ask for much and took nothing for granted. I remember her as a warm and vibrant woman who loved to chat and to dance; her favourite tune was "Lady in Red",  her favourite colour.

Although she was confirmed after his father died, Gordon felt that his mum wasn't really "religious", but she had faith in people, in home and in love, and that's good enough for me. The quietest lives can be a triumph above the fuss and clamour of this world; to live an ordinary life extraordinarily well is what most souls aspire to.

 "Diamond"

An ordinary life

made brilliant by devotion to the everyday, 

the regular, the unseen routines;

the rituals of normality.

A mill-girl

is far from run-of-the-mill

when you see beyond the dusted dress and flustered hair

to the hopes and dreams that may never leave

her heart and hearth

and those of the ones she loves.

A diamond may be the simplest bead

in the scheme of stones and gems:

always born under pressure,

scuffed and buffered into life.

It may gather clouds, unnoticed

in the well-worn wedded ring

on the hand that rarely shakes a stranger's;

but see it capture the sun and stars

once raised to a loved one's cheek;

such a sparkle is never lost,

never hidden for the treasuring;

never faded for the remembering.

                                                                          Gigi
*For Evelyn*

Evelyn & Maurice
God Bless

"The White Cockade"  Kate Rusby

"May The Way Of God Be In Your Words"

"Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones."

(Proverbs 16:24)

"May The Way Of God Be In Your Words"

May the way of God be in your words;

may your Sorry or Love never be less than meant.

May Thank You never tumble you;

may your Goodbye to me be

without end.

May what remains unspoken

be read in our upturned palms.

                                                                                              Gigi

"The Moon and St Christopher"  Mary Black

Goin' down South...

Brighton Beach nuns!

“What makes earth feel like hell is our expectation that it should feel like heaven.” 

(Chuck Palahniuk) 

Across the world's most popular religions, folklore and mythologies, hell has traditionally been seen as an underworld of relentless retribution, exclusion and damnation. Religions with a cyclic tradition often depict hell as an intermediary state between incarnations or levels of recovery; even then, generally located below the earth's exterior surface, with entrances from The Land of the Living. The modern English word "hell" derives from the Old English "hel / helle"; around 750AD, this referred to a netherworld for the dead. An Anglo Saxon variation translates as something hidden, covered up, buried. The Norse Pagans feared a being named "Hel", described as the ruler of their underworld; a place of banishment for all women and some men! In Greek mythology, the underworld of Hades included a deep abyss, a place of torment and torture. Islam warns of pits of extreme ice and deadly cold as well as the eternally fiery ones. Chinese folklore tells of an unfathomable maze incorporating eighteen levels of underworld and pits of filth. The Native American and Inuit cultures also feature terrible netherworlds; with deepening levels of despair and ever more tortuous routes, including flesh-ripping winds and rivers of blood. You get the (not very pretty) picture.
Within Judaism, hell has been depicted as not entirely physical; it has often been compared to the most intense feeling of shame and isolation. The Roman Catholic Church will define hell as "a state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed." My own Dad, in contrast to Monsieur Sartre on his bookshelves, told me that hell was being kept from others, those you loved, as well as being excluded by God. Yet through Dante, Milton and Blake, there is the persistence of the "fall" of beings, the terrible descent, the claustrophobic enclosure; in vivid contrast to the rise skywards to God and the heavens, the freedom of flight and the summit of enlightenment. Little wonder then that many Irish people and other rural folk in Britain and the United States used euphemisms such as "going down" or "heading south" when referring to the fate of Bad People. When I was a very little girl in (whisper it) sarf London, I'm sure I had a notion that sinners were headed somewhere beyond Margate.
Barely a couple of years ago, "South" for me was that hemisphere beneath the Southern Cross constellation, principally my beloved Australia. Called to think about it more deeply, The South would also refer to Louisiana, Tennessee and Texas: places oozing with the blues, with country, with bourbon, hot sauce and hugs; places I have only romanticised about and still long to visit. Those dreams are still very vivid, but these days "going back down south", from whatever angle, means coming home to rusty, glinting little Brighton. Yes, it is indeed geographically somewhat beyond Margate.
Thank you to my dear friend Tom, husband of the equally lovely Ellen, for sending me this joke while Brighton has a late burst of sunshine! Tom isn't as well as he should be or will be at the moment, but nothing deters a saucy sense of humour! Thanks also for the excuse to play Kings of Leon on this blog...
(Much love to both of you. I'll see you soon; get the broccoli in x)

A couple decided to go to south to Florida to thaw out during a particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier.
Because of their schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel together. So, the husband flew to Florida on Thursday, with his wife flying down the following day.
The husband checked into the hotel. There was a computer in his room, so he decided to send an email to his wife. However, he accidentally left out one letter in the email address and sent the email without realising...
Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston , a widow had just returned home from her husband's funeral. The widow decided to check her email for messages from friends and family. After reading the first message, she screamed and fainted.
The widow's son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the message on the computer screen:

To: My Loving Wife
Subject: I've Arrived
Date: July 19, 2012
I know you're surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now and you're allowed to send emails to your loved ones. I've just arrived and have been checked in.
Everything's ready for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was!

P. S. Sure is freaking hot down here!!!!

Photo: Gigi, album

"You can all go to hell; I shall go to Texas."
(David Crockett)

"Back Down South"  Kings of Leon

"If you're going through hell, keep going."

(Winston Churchill)

True colours

"One Love, One Heart;

Let's get together and feel alright"

(Bob Marley)

My very Irish Mum listened to a lot of my preferred music under sufferance over the years. By her own admission, she had never seen a black person until she was in her twenties: she grew to love reggae, especially Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff. She described reggae as "Black Irish music" and often said Jesus might well be a little like Marley if He arrived in Kingston, Jamaica, with dreads and a guitar. Due to the geographical and social restrictions of her upbringing, Mum first learned to call all people of any colour darker than her own "darkies" and "coloured folk": she later learned that this could be as offensive as it could be inaccurate! She came to "Rock Against Racism" concerts and learned that every colour, creed and culture could harbour racism. Well into her seventies, a young black guy called her a "white bitch" (during a building dispute involving her home); she corrected him, saying: "I'm not white, I'm Irish. I'm virtually black. Pull yourself together."

I was reminded of this today when I saw this poem. Untitled, it was apparently written by an African child and was nominated by the United Nations as their "Poem of the Year" in 2006.

"When I born, I black.  

When I grow up, I black. 

When I go in sun, I black.  

When I scared, I black. 

When I sick, I black.  

And when I die, I still black. 

And you white fellow, 

When you born, you pink. 

When you grow up, you 

white. 

When you go in sun, you red. 

When you cold, you blue. 

When you scared, you yellow. 

When you sick, you green. 

And when you die, you grey... 

And you calling me coloured? "

"Racism does not have a good track record. It's been tried out for a long time and you'd think by now we'd want to put an end to it instead of putting it under new management."

(Thomas Sowell)

"Hating people because of their colour is wrong. And it doesn't matter which colour does the hating. It's just plain wrong."
(Muhammad Ali)

“Life is one race I never want to win, I'd rather stroll around enjoying the scenery."
(Aditya Chandra)

"Achievement has no colour."
(Abraham Lincoln)

"One Love"  Bob Marley  

Awesome Be Thy Name

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us some e-mail, Amen."

(From the prayers of a 3 year old girl, as collected by Roger Knapp)

The High Altar, Chichester Cathedral

I came across this re-working of "The Lord's Prayer" during a recent visit to Chichester Cathedral: a wonderfully uplifting but humbling place, where the bright atmosphere still echoes with 900 years of worship. This year, as part of the annual school-leaver services in the Church of England Diocese of Chichester, 3200 children and 1450 parents from 158 church schools took part in a series of special services across Sussex. The services were comprised of songs chosen and sung by the children and also prayers written by them. This adaptation of "The Lord's Prayer", put together by the pupils of Green Oak Primary School in Surrey, was prayed throughout the masses. It's very simple, very clear; and who said prayers can't be cute??

"Our Father in heaven,

You are Awesome!

Show us who you are and

What you want us to be.

Make earth more like heaven.

Please give us what we need to keep going each day.

Help us know when we are wrong, and clean us up on the inside.

Help us to let other people off and to move on.

Keep us safe from bad stuff. You're in charge!

You're strong and powerful and always there.

Forever,

Amazing!"

Another Tail from Eden...

"How you behave toward cats here below will determine your status in heaven".
(Robert A. Heinlein)

Many thanks to John Richardson in Australia for sending this joke, which I've had to adapt slightly for this blog!
I love cats; much as I have an affinity for and fascination with snakes and reptiles, I have all the standard weaknesses for cute and fluffy. Purely on an aesthetic level, I think cats are the most beautiful of creatures; from glorious lions and tigers through to the neighbourhood moggies. My own little cat Sooty was with me for nearly all of her 14 years of life: it's a measure of how much I miss her that, some eight years after her death, I haven't managed to "replace" her, even though I keenly feel the absence of a cat in a single person's life. I feel if you have the devotion of a cat. you must be doing something right! My Sooty Poshpaws was born around the end of August and the black and white cat at the foot of this joke bears a strong resemblance to her.
I've joined in many discussions with Catholic animal-lovers about whether or not animals go to heaven: obviously, all creatures of the earth and sky were accommodated on the ark... Personally, I feel that animals who become part of our lives are entrusted to us by God. I'll remember that next time my neighbour's handsome but wayward ginger tom, cunningly called "Ginger", sticks his whole face in my morning porridge...

Adam and Eve said:“Lord, when we were in the garden, you walked with us every day. Now we do not see you anymore. We are lonely here and it's hard for us to remember how much you love us.”
And God said:“I will create a companion for you who will be a reflection of my love for you, so that you will love me even when you cannot see me. Regardless of how selfish or unlovable you may be, this new companion will accept you as you are and will love you as I do, in spite of yourselves.”
And God created a new animal to be a companion for Adam and Eve.
And it was a good animal and God was pleased. And the new animal was pleased to be with Adam and Eve and wagged his tail.
And Adam said:“Lord, I have already named all the animals in the Kingdom and I cannot think of a name for this new animal.”
And God said:“I have created this animal to be a reflection of my love for you; his name will be a reflection of my own name and you will call him Dog."

And Dog lived with Adam and Eve and loved them. And they were comforted.
And God was pleased.
And Dog was content and wagged his tail.
After a while, it came to pass that Adam and Eve became filled with pride. They strutted like peacocks and believed they were worthy of adoration. Dog had indeed taught them that they were loved, but perhaps too well.
And God said:“I will create a companion who will see them as they are. This companion will remind them of their limitations so they will know they are not always worthy of adoration.”
And God created Cat to be a companion to Adam and Eve.
And Cat would not obey them. And when Adam and Eve gazed into Cat's eyes, they were reminded that they were not the supreme beings.

And so, Adam and Eve learned humility.
And they were greatly improved.
And God was pleased.
And Dog was happy and wagged his tail.

And  Cat . . .

 

…didn't really give a **** one way or the other.

"The Year of the Cat"  Al Stewart

"Beyond the road's turning"

“When the path ignites a soul,
there's no remaining in place.
The foot touches ground,
but not for long.”
(Hakim Sanai)
 

  

"Will you walk with me

Beyond the road's turning,

Where Day takes the valley

That leads into Night?

Love will you walk with me

All through my journey,

Or only until the Light?"

("The Turn of the Road"  Les Barker)

 

A few weeks ago, my brother-in-law forwarded some stunning photos of paths and roads to me. I knew I should shape them into a post somehow, but couldn't quite pull them together. Then last week, a little boy about six years old drove his stabilised bike into me when I was out for my afternoon constitutional on Brighton's Level. It was at a point where the various walkways across The Level converge. As his mum ran up to apologise, I asked him where he was off to in such a hurry.
"I dunno yet. Where does that lead?" He pointed in one direction.
"Oh, that leads over there!"
"And that one?" He pointed at another path.
"Well, that leads over there!"
"And this one?" He pointed further along in the direction he'd been peddling.
"This leads to there."
He stared at me for a moment and then nodded happily: "Thank you!"
His out of breath mother told him to stop bothering me and asked him which way he wanted to go. Very emphatically he replied: "Don't matter, everywhere here leads there - she said so." Such philosophy from such a very little chap was lost on his mum, who smiled wearily at me as though I'd just let the grown-ups down.
It got me thinking about paths: sometimes we may have to choose, and our choice of direction, route and mode of travel says far more about us than the intended destination. Sometimes we may say that we stumbled upon a path or that we don't know how we came to be on a certain road; maybe we've taken what appears to be a wrong turning. My own road through life now seems to have become a rather uneven but strangely scenic off-the-beaten-track meander; not the gridlocked but heavily signposted highway I'd become used to. For a born and bred Londoner who once swore she would never have reason to leave, I now find myself deeply at home in a rundown part of a seaside town that wears it's Victorian glamour like a secondhand coat.
Almost a lifelong public servant, I felt my identity had vanished along with that career; now, I may struggle to make the ends meet financially, but the face in the mirror and the image I present to the world seem infinitely more true to each other. I'm very hopeful I will arrive at Me. Some friends, even those steadfastly on that urban highway, are still "with me" beyond my road's turning;  and my own faith and values seem a lot easier to follow than any map or sat nav. I've added some wonderful quotes about paths and directions to the aforementioned pictures. Now, they seem to me a little like a traveller's guide.

"Maybe it doesn't matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark."
(Barbara Hall)

"True morality consists not in following the beaten track, but in finding the true path for ourselves, and fearlessly following it."
(Mahatma Gandhi)

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
(Proverb)
 

 

"It is not we who seek the Way, but the Way which seeks us. That is why you are faithful to it, even while you stand waiting, so long as you are prepared, and act the moment you are confronted by its demands." 

(Dag Hammarskjold)

"Everyone has got the right to follow his own path and approach God in his own way." 
(Kedar Nath Twari)

"As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are. Otherwise you will miss most of your life."
(Siddhartha Gautama)

"I've always looked for the perfect life to step into. I've taken all the paths to get where I wanted. But no matter where I go, I still come home Me."

(Layne Staley)

 

" Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey."

(Lord Byron)

 

"Like a morning dream, life becomes more and more bright the longer we live, and the reason of everything appears more clear. What has puzzled us before seems less mysterious, and the crooked paths look straighter as we approach the end."

(Jean Paul)

 

"A path is a prior interpretation of the best way to traverse a landscape."

(Rebecca Solnit)

 

"It's one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it's another to think that your's is the only path."

(Paulo Coelho)  

  

"May the road rise up to meet you."

(Traditional Irish blessing)

 

" If we all tried to make other people's paths easy, our own feet would have a smooth, even place to walk on."

(Myrtle Reed)

 

"Let each man take the path according to his capacity, understanding and temperament. His true guru will meet him along that path."

(Swami Sivananda)

 

 "Do not be afraid to be saints. Follow Jesus Christ who is the source of freedom and light. Be open to the Lord so that He may lighten all your ways."

(Pope John Paul II)

 

"Of all the paths a man could strike into, there is, at any given moment, a best path .. A thing which, here and now, it were of all things wisest for him to do .. To find this path, and walk in it, is the one thing needful for him." 

(Thomas Carlyle)

"There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path."
(Siddhartha Gautama)

 

 "Life is about how you love and hurt the people who just cross your path for a moment."
(Matthew Kelly)
 

"God can be realised from all paths."
(Ramakrishna)

"The Simple Path:
Silence is Prayer,
Prayer is Faith,
Faith is Love,
Love is Service;
The Fruit of Service is Peace."
(Mother Teresa)

"It constantly amazes me that men and women wander the earth marvelling at the highest mountains, the deepest ocean, the whitest sands, the most exotic islands, the most intriguing birds of the air and fish of the sea – and all the time never stop to marvel at themselves and realise their infinite potential as human beings."
(Matthew Kelly)

"The footprints we leave behind are as important as the path we will follow. They're part of the same journey - out story."
(Lori L Lopez)
 

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"The path of peace is not a passive journey."

(TF Hodge)

"What you are, and who you are should provide greater clarity about where you have been and where you are headed."
(TF Hodge) 

"There are many paths but only one journey."
(Naomi Judd)

"There are two paths of which one may choose in the walk of life; one we are born with, and the one we consciously blaze. One is naturally true, while the other is a perceptive illusion. Choose wisely at each fork in the road."
(TF Hodge)

"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading."

(Siddhartha Gautama)

"A lost person or article is still what it is, still valuable in itself, but in the wrong place, disconnected from its purpose and unable to be or do whatever it is intended to be or do."
(David Winter)

"Delving into the past had unveiled a cruel lesson - that in the book of life it is perhaps best not to turn back pages; it was a path on which, whatever direction we took, we'd never be able to choose our own destiny."
(Carlos Ruiz Zafon)

"The difference between a path and a road is not only the obvious one. A path is little more than a habit that comes with knowledge of a place. It is a sort of ritual of familiarity."
(Wendell Berry) 

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference."
(Robert Frost)     

"The Turn in the Road"  June Tabor

 

“So at the end of this day, we give thanks For being betrothed to the unknown.” 

  (John O'Donohue)

God's Waiting Rooms

"I believe the creation of the NHS is one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century. I always believed this."

(David Cameron, 2006)

"When your family relies on the NHS all the time – day after day, night after night – you know how precious it is."

(David Cameron, 2006)

"We will never jeopardise the NHS by cutting its funding."
(David Cameron, 2006)

"Closure of existing services will be necessary… such reforms are extraordinarily risky."

(NHS Confederation report, 2011)

  

Whenever I've had to visit Brighton's sprawling and slightly dishevelled Royal Sussex Hospital recently, I've been struck by the sheer "niceness" of all the staff: cleaners, catering, nurses, receptionists, doctors. I actually heard a young doctor in Accident and Emergency, his own eyelids, shoulders and knees drooping, say that he understood how tiring it must be for people to wait; how sorry he was. He'd probably been on call for a day and a half. The fact that he was addressing a waiting room largely comprised of those who were the worse for wear from drugs, alcohol or aggression was clearly not an issue for him, but I found it particularly poignant.

Many of the non-medical NHS employees in Brighton are paid the paltry minimum wage, yet I've found that kind words, smiles and even a hug may all be part of the service. I truly believe that our National Health Service is the finest in the world: as patients and service users, we need to support NHS workers in their ongoing struggle to preserve this tradition of dedicated care; and not just with a song and dance at the Olympics.

A doctor pal of mine tells me that many practitioners and other medical workers are "necessarily atheist"; yet beyond the expected hospital sights, sounds and smells, the corridors of the Royal Sussex seem to have been sprayed with a healthy dose of fresh and palpable faith.

*Thank you*

Support the National Health Service: http://www.keepournhspublic.com

 

"Rise"  Eddie Vedder



Mary's Queenship, from the children of Eve

"Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy!
Our life, our sweetness, and our hope!
To thee do we cry, poor banished
children of Eve, to thee do we send
up our sighs, mourning and weeping
in this valley, of tears.
Turn, then, most gracious advocate,
thine eyes of mercy toward us; and
after this our exile show unto us the
blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus;
O clement, O loving, O sweet virgin Mary.
Pray for us, O holy Mother of God:
That we may be made worthy of the
promises of Christ."
("Hail, Holy Queen", traditional prayer of the Rosary)

In 1954, Pope Pius XII established 22nd August as the feast day for The Queenship of Mary: the date was seen as a logical "follow-up" to the feast of The Assumption".
In his encyclical  "To the Queen of Heaven", Pius XII confirms that Mary deserves the title not only as Mother of God, but because she is perceived as the redemptive Eve, with unique intercessory powers.
Mary's Queenship is steeped in Scripture, with reference to her matriarchal glory made at both The Annunciation and The Visitation. In the fourth century, St Ephrem called Mary both "Lady" and "Queen". Subsequent Marian hymns continue these titles: "Hail, Holy Queen", "Hail, Queen of Heaven". 
The "Salve Regina", ("Hail, Holy Queen"), was composed in the Middle Ages, therefore originally in Latin, by German Monk Hermann of Reichenau. There have been many subsequent translations and "Hail, Holy Queen" is also the closing prayer of the Rosary: it's said at prayers at each meeting of The Catholic Women's League. Wonderfully moving when traditionally sung as Gregorian chant, "Hail, Holy Queen" also lends itself to really jubilant renditions: the attached video is from the film "Sister Act"; maybe not quite what you were expecting in honour of the feast of Mary's Queenship, but I think it's a delight.. Also, I just love to see nuns clapping and singing their hearts out.

"Hail, Holy Queen"  from "Sister Act"