Alphabet for World Peace

I've mentioned the Charter for Compassion before in this Blog. This poster was featured in the newsletter I received today.

"As a mixed-media artist, Debi Strong has created works with the intention of encouraging kindness, connection, compassion, and peace for our world. Most of her art includes a significant percentage of recycled materials in the form of magazine papers, re-purposed fibers, and found objects."

Click here to see other great examples of Compassion around the world - including a NZ example!

Science and religion

If this topic interests you and you have 18 minutes to spare watch this YouTube of a TEDx talk by Michael Dowd. It is entitled Reality Reconciles Science and Religion. I have heard talks by Michael Dowd and his wife previously and appreciated their perspectives and the intelligent way they present them. The Wikipedia article on Dowd gives very interesting background to who he is and the journey he has travelled to his current enthusiasm. One of his best known books is Thank God for Evolution which has received acclaim from several  Nobel Laureates.

Samoa holiday

We decided to visit one of our Pacific neighbours for a week's holiday recently. Samoa was a place we had never been to so off we went. We had a wonderful week relaxing at Le Vasa resort (as you will see from photos below!) It was fairly remote from Apia and we didn't have a car so were limited to one half day tour with a driver from the resort. Obviously we didn't do any kind of justice to the whole of Samoa or even the island of Upolu but the local area outside the resort and a trip to the small island of Manono in a local boat gave a taste of village life in Samoa. Of course village life and "resort life" are like two different worlds. However, the resorts and other tourist attractions give much needed work to local people. Our boat driver said that only one family in five in Samoa has someone with a "proper job". That's a very sad statistic if he has his facts right. So - a few photos (of the hundred I took!)

View from our Fale on first morning. (We arrived in the dark the night before.)

Our Fale is the first one on the right.

The open air restaurant

One way to relax!

We spent a lot time in, or by, the pool!

The grounds in the resort

Drinks on the verandah of our Fale

Samoan Pak ' Save!! 

Local shop

Fiction or fact?

Yesterday I posted about Dave Eggers novel The Circle. Today in reading the Spirituality and Practice newsletter I see that it features a report on what experts are predicting regarding the rise of technology. The two part Blog summarizes the report and then comments on the spiritual implications.
Well worth reading - especially in conjunction with the novel!

Uncannily on target book...

I've just finished reading an amazing (and somewhat scary) novel by Dave Eggers called The Circle. It is about what can happen when technology and social media become a 21st century "Big Brother" (as in George Orwell's 1984). Eggers always chooses a real issue of depth and his novels and non-fiction are definitely  worth reading. 

Watching the news last night, just after finishing reading this book, was uncanny! So many of the featured stories had something to do with internet scams, privacy breaches, social media issues, politicians sending inappropriate Tweets… 
Eggers is one small step ahead of where we are now with some salutary warnings. (And it's a page turning good read as well!)

White Water Rafting

As I said in my last post I'm doing a bit of a "retrospective" look though past journals and poetry.
This is a poem I wrote in 1995 - but I still like it and identify with it!
As I think about the date I wrote this, I realize that it was just six months before my brain aneurysm so the "next challenge" was bigger than I anticipated when I wrote!

WHITE WATER RAFTING

White water rafting in the caverns of my soul

terrifying, exhilarating -

this is no time to analyse

just hang on and go with it.

Hold the sides of the boat and lean into the curves.

No jumping out or going back now

No use trying to grab the solid looking rocks

that flash by - to hold onto them would mean

being wrenched out of the boat and left behind.

It's dark in these underground caves and

no way of knowing what is around the next bend.

Shooting the rapids one minute

Gliding calmly the next - the trick is

to be alert and fully aware of each moment.

All one's energy is focussed on just that -

Being alert for what each moment requires:

Holding on in the rough patches,

Relaxing and drawing breath when possible,

Ready then for the next challenge.

The river determines the route and the destination

This is no highway with multi choice exits.

The Guide gives instructions:

"Hold on, lean right, let go, bail..."

And I? I am committed to the river and the guide.

Trusting them, I will emerge into the light,

And in retrospect would not have missed the journey!

Sheila Pritchard

13 December 1995

Then and now...

For a variety of reasons I've been looking back recently at earlier stages of my life. Maybe one day I'll write a memoir…? But for starters here are a couple of photos taken 40 years apart.

Left to right: Marie, Sheila, Bev. We all served as missionaries 

with SIM in West Africa.

This is taken in Nigeria at the SIM guest house in Miango where we came for conferences and holiday. Bev worked in Niger, Marie and I in different parts of Nigeria. Photo probably about 1974.

This one was taken this year (2014) as we celebrated a significant birthday for one of us! The waitress couldn't quite match the earlier photo to who was who now, so in case you are also wondering: 

(l to r) Bev, Marie, Sheila

Forgiveness

I received this in a regular email from Charter for Compassion. It sounds a good thing to sign up for - so I have! (Note that it is free.)

May 4th: Tutu Global Forgiveness Challenge will help you discover how the act of forgiving can bring more love and peace to your life. When enough of us forgive – we can change the world!
Sign up, and starting May 4th you’ll receive a daily inspirational email from the Archbishop and Mpho Tutu, with a link to join their online forgiveness community. Inside, you’ll get:

• Daily exercises to teach you how to forgive anyone for anything.
• Extraordinary stories from ordinary people who have been transformed through forgiving or being forgiven.
• Interviews with the world’s top forgiveness experts, great spiritual leaders, and well-known celebrities, including Alanis Morissette and Arianna Huffington.
• Community support from people just like you who are trying to live a more forgiving life.
• And it’s free!

What surprises you most….?

Sons of Gallipoli

Chris Skinner, well known NZ singer/songwriter and Marist Priest, has written a very moving song called Sons of Gallipoli. Here are the words:

We sang —God of Nations at thy feet—

As we stood on that sacred shore

With a heartfelt pride

Somewhere deep inside

For the sons of Gallipoli

We sang —E Ihowa Atua—

From the place they call Anzac Cove

We gazed out to sea

Where our home would be

For the sons of Gallipoli

How still you lie

And how still you die on other hillsides.

We sang —hear our voices we entreat—

As the wind blew from off the sea

With a tearful sigh and the question why

For the sons of Gallipoli

We sang —God defend our free land—

And for all whose lives are torn

With one voice implore

No more talk of war

For the sons of Gallipoli

To hear the song you will need his CD's You Raise Me Up or Serenity. (Or if you read this before Sunday 27th April come to Ponsonby Baptist Church where it will be played as part of the service!!)