Behind the clouds...

After a bleak cold day yesterday I ventured out early this morning determined to walk no matter what!

And then I noticed that Eye in the sky 

reminding me 

that behind the clouds 

there is still blue sky and 

the sun still rises.

Retreat at Mercy Centre 2017

The location of the Mercy Centre so close to One Tree Hill and Cornwall Park is such a gift!
I find that contemplative walking in  such a beautiful environment is very nourishing to body, soul and spirit! Just as reflecting on Scripture (or other inspiring written material) can be called Lectio Divina (sacred reading), so reflecting on creation can be called Visio Divina (sacred looking/seeing)
Here are a few photos I took during the week.

The sign says: Please keep off the garden Tulips Growing.

The peace of wild things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry in Risking Everything

Peter's Pool - Franz Josef Glacier

Responding to injustice and uncertainty

I very much appreciate the weekly Blog Brain Pickings.

"Maria Popova is a Bulgarian writer, blogger, and critic living in Brooklyn, New York. She is known for her blog BrainPickings.org, which features her writing on culture, books, and eclectic subjects off and on the Internet." Wikipedia

I sometimes find it hard to keep up with all the wonderful topics she writes about and the links she provides. It's no wonder she has been awarded a prize for Blogging!

In this week's Blog I highlighted two quotes, both of which seem very appropriate to the world we currently live in.

The first is from Albert Einstein speaking about how to respond to the enormous injustices that sometimes feel overwhelming:

"Einstein suggests that the power to speak out against injustice need not be reserved for those professionally devoted to human rights work, nor manifested in grand deeds of activism. He reflects on his own simple, steadfast commitment:

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

'In a long life I have devoted all my faculties to reach a somewhat deeper insight into the structure of physical reality. Never have I made any systematic effort to ameliorate the lot of men, to fight injustice and suppression, and to improve the traditional forms of human relations. The only thing I did was this: in long intervals I have expressed an opinion on public issues whenever they appeared to me so bad and unfortunate that silence would have made me feel guilty of complicity.' " (Underlining mine.)

The second quote from Brain Pickings relates to living with uncertainty:

Albert Camus (1913-1960)

"Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present,” Albert Camus wrote in his 1951 meditation on what it really means to be a rebel. At the heart of this sentiment are the two complementary forces of love and will, for a loving regard for the future requires a willful commitment to rising to the problems of the present and transcending its tumults — a dependency as true in our personal lives as it is in our political lives, and one which demands a capacity for withstanding uncertainty.

"Heaven is under our feet...

...as well as over our heads." Henry David Thoreau Walden

I never tire of relishing the beauty of the simple, natural things I see every day:

 Little Violas bursting with seeds that might be missed if not for careful noticing -

Reflections on the lake - five minutes from home.

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. ... There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter."

—Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

Sydney "Vivid" Part 2

As well as the light displays at night we enjoyed several other local Sydney places.
The Botanic gardens, especially an area called The Calyx which showcased a garden wall:

On the only rather grey-sky day we walked across the Pyrmont Bridge to Madame Tussaud's and had great fun with some famous figures:

We also enjoyed the Chinese Garden of Friendship which was walking distance from our hotel.

It is a very tranquil place in the midst of high-rise buildings and all the commercialism of Darling Harbour with its many Hotels. We spent our final morning here before setting off back to NZ!

Sydney "Vivid" 2017 - Part 1

Sydney puts on a festive display of lights for a few weeks in winter. We enjoyed five days to explore in the daytime and the nighttime. A few highlights...

Staying at the Ibis Hotel in Darling Harbour was a very convenient location:

 On the Pyrmont Bridge joining the harbour to the city. Hotel in background.

View from our room in the early morning sunshine...

...and at night when fireworks and other light displays were on show.

We made many trips on the ferry to Circular Quay ...

....and on another ferry to Manly for a walk and...

...lunch!! 

Innocently named a summer salad, we ordered one each. We ate one between us and took the other home for our dinner :-)

Sydney Harbour Bridge by day and night.

The constantly changing patterns on the Opera House were the most spectacular highlight:

The patterns on the Opera House were not static but constantly moving and merging.

A Personal Portrait of Brother David Steindl-Rast

Brother David is one of my sages, mentors... I think I've said before that I had the delight of meeting him personally a few years ago at a Spiritual Directors International conference. If you want an inspiring 45 minutes, make a cuppa and enjoy this documentary.

"This (2016) documentary, produced by Robert Neumüller for Austrian ORF television, takes Brother David Steindl-Rast back many generations to his ancestor’s castle and to the pilgrimage town of Maria Rast (Ruše, Slovenia), to which the family owes its name. Full of humor and openness, Br. David also goes back through many stories of his own life, and helps us to see why gratitude has been accompanying him for a lifetime."

Positive news

We often sit watching the news on TV and wondering aloud if the news media are somehow, consciously or unconsciously, brain washing us into believing that human beings are mostly corrupt and out do harm. Given that we know the power of copy-cat behaviour I find it astounding that such graphic detail is given, not only in the news but presumably in many of the TV programmes too. Just seeing the titles of the evening "entertainment" makes me sad and angry.
However, the title of this post is "Positive news" so let me get to the point.

The truth is: The news is not all bad. People are not all cruel, uncaring and about to kidnap, kill and destroy. But we need to hear about this goodness, see it celebrated, have it as a daily diet to balance the bad news (which of course we can't deny). I'm glad to see that TV1 has continued it's weekly "Good Sorts" slot and Seven Sharp has an ASB "Good as Gold" award. That's a start. But what about regular reporting of the many wonderful things happening world wide?

So here are some links to good news/positive news:

The Gratefulness site every month has a list of wonderful positive news: click here for five inspiring stories. I was especially moved by the second story. What one woman can do to transform a whole community...

Or how about knowing of courageous grassroots responses to terrorism:

And would you believe - there are many websites that feature positive world news - good old Google gives several options. Here's one I like and have only just discovered: Positive News  Did you know that in spite of Trump, US businesses are speeding towards a low carbon world?

And how about celebrating with Amnesty NZ's good news page?

Seeing and hearing positive stories encourages me to keep believing in possibility, people power and the significance of human goodness expressed in ways as simple as holding hands with a Muslim neighbour or writing a letter or having a great idea and believing it is worth sharing.

Hopeful imagination

Recently two people mentioned Walter Brueggemann's book Hopeful Imagination. I knew I owned it so I've started re-reading it. Written in 1986 it is surprisingly, and somewhat shockingly, pertinent to what we see in the world and in the church today. I'm still in the first of the three sections of the book focussed on Jeremiah and his prophetic awareness of the coming exile and the destruction of Jerusalem. Both political and religious security were at stake.

"Jeremiah lived in a time of turmoil. He believed it was a time of dying. He envisioned the death of a culture, a society, a tradition. He watched his world dying and he felt pain. What pained him even more was the failure of his contemporaries to notice, to care, to acknowledge or to admit. He could not determine whether they were too stupid to understand, or whether they were so dishonest that they understood but engaged in an enormous cover up. He could not determine whether it was a grand public deception or a pitiful self-deception. But he watched. The dying seemed so clear, so inexorable. Yet they denied. In different moments, he indicts his people of both stupidity (4:22) and stubbornness (18:12)"