Review of 2012- from where I stand

• Most memorable national event: Definitely the London Olympics. I'm not a sports person myself, but so enjoyed watching the grit, determination, skill and humanity of the atletes. A wonderful event, made possible by a host of willing volunteers. Thank you to you all.
• Most memorable family event: the birth of our first grand child who is a real joy.
• Most unusual thing I did this year: Pulling a fibre optic cable through a marshy nature reserve with about 100 volunteers to give visitors and scientists a better view of what was happening in the osprey nest on the reserve.
• Saddest moments of the year: when a 5 year old girl was abducted and murdered in a nearby town, when an 11 year old girl was shot by the Taliban for championing education for girls in Afghanistan, and more recently when an Indian student was gang raped on a bus in Delhi and later died of her injuries.
• Personal achievements of the year: surviving a whole year of running my own company: selling two of my paintings at Easter; being instrumental in setting up two new local community groups; being elected as a town councillor; exhibiting at several conferences and managing the logistics involved without mishap;
• Most addictive TV programme: Downton Abbey. I started watching series 3 having not watched previously, and enjoyed it so much that I borrowed and watched the whole of the first two series as well!
• Most influential sermon of the year: In fact this is a series of 6 sermons preached by Alan Hewitt several years ago about the Biblical view of the role of women. He examines the Biblical evidence carefully and rationally and comes to the very liberating conclusion that God created man and women to be equal and that there is no scriptural basis for excluding women from any ministries of the church. Although I have not felt oppressed in previous churches, I nevertheless felt very liberated by hearing him say what I have always really believed to be true. This series is having a deep impact on my awareness of the oppression of women globally.
• Best Christmas present: We gave each other new wedding rings, having "expanded" out of our previous ones. A very good gift to celebrate 31 years of marriage.
• Best film of the year: Untouchable. I've watched lots of films on DVD which are not necessarily this year's films.  Untouchable is a film from this year and well worth seeing.
• Moments that I want to bottle and keep for ever: Seeing otters in the river close to home- my first ever sighting in the wild; the amazing autumn colours this year; my grand daughter's smile;

Serious or glorious?

I was thinking about the posts I have written and thinking that maybe it was all getting a bit too deep and serious.
 I suppose I could have started a blog for videos of cute kittens and laughing babies. I could have tried a comedy blog, but really I'm not funny enough. I could have blogged about something very intelligent and abstract to try to get a cultural following.
Somehow all of these seem just hollow. I'm a reality girl myself. I like to talk about what is real and honest. Life sucks sometimes and covering it up with a sticking plaster of casual entertainment just doesn't seem to do justice to how we are feeling. It's like patting someone on the back and saying "You'll soon get over it," when they have just announced that their marriage has ended. Platitudes just won't wash.
However, life is also glorious and unexpected and hilarious sometimes. I'm all for being honest about that too!
I have enjoyed this autumn like no autumn that I can remember. The wet summer followed by a sudden cold snap in October meant that all the trees turned over a few short weeks and it was superb. How I enjoyed photographing it all, and now how I am enjoying painting it too!

 

Actually life is both serious and glorious, often at the same time! So I guess my blog will always have elements of both. I hope you can cope!
:-)

Sorrow upon sorrow

No one could feel anything other than profound sorrow at this time when a lone gunman has murdered at least 26 people, 20 of them children.
We will never know what was in his mind as he pulled the trigger time and time again.
The human suffering caused by this violent act will never be fully appreciated.
*
*
*
*
*
Sin is the biggest enemy of our world. But there is an answer.
It's not easy to understand because it doesn't fit with our human way of dealing with things. But then our human way of dealing with things hasn't got us very far, so maybe we ought to look at what God says.
God says that sin separates us from him and that we can't deal with it on our own. The people of Israel were always turning their back on God and trying to find their own solutions to problems they faced. It was always God who provided the solution- plagues to persuade Pharoah to release the people from captivity, water in the desert, pillars of fire for guidance etc.
God also said that he would save the people from their sin by providing a child. The words of prophets gave clues about what the people of Israel should expect long before Jesus, who many accepted as the Messiah, was born.

The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice
when dividing the plunder.
For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.
Every warrior’s boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.

Isaiah Chapter 9

We wouldn't look to a child to save the world from sin, but then "the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength."

At a time of sorrow upon sorrow, humanity needs an answer to sin. How I long for the peace, justice and righteousness announced by Isaiah.

Joining up the dots. . . . . .

I am in the middle of looking at signage in my town. It is reinforcing to me the serious problems that we as a society have with joining up the dots. There are so many bodies and organisations doing a bit of improvement here and there and what you end up with is a mess! There are so many styles of signage, so many different colours, many out of date or pointing the wrong way, or pointing to things which have moved or closed down. It is a real dog's dinner.
There seems to me to be real mileage in removing ALL the signs and starting again from scratch, but no one ever has the vision or budget to do it.
This isn't just an isolated problem though. You can see the same thing in so many spheres of public life. Lots of people wanting to make things better, but ending up duplicating what another group is doing or simply cutting across it.
Resources are wasted and people get frustrated. There must be a way of communicating better.

I am aware that actually we communicate with each other more than ever before, but I am not sure that quantity makes up for quality. I am bombarded with hundreds of emails that I neither wish to or have time to read. Surely there must be a better way of co-ordinating our efforts and working with our communities in mind.

I think I will start up a campaign group called Join the dots to campaign for joined up thinking! Actually -too late- I typed it into Google and it is, amongst other things, a market research company.

Maybe Join the dots could sort out our signage!

So where has all the money gone?

I guess this article will prove that I didn't learn much when I did economics at school!
Where has all the money gone?
We receive money, both individually and as nations, when we do a job or sell something or provide a service. We pay out money when we buy goods or services. This suggest that if the money goes out of my pocket, it goes into someone else's. On a global scale, surely it means that if one country is spending the money, another country is receiving it.
This is the basis for my simplistic view that money is like the tide. If it's out here, it must be in somewhere else!
So how can there be a global recession?
Is there a country somewhere receiving lots of money and then burning it as fuel? I just can't get my head around it.
I just know that the news this week that the UK may not get out of debt until 2018 at the earliest is very bad news.
Everything has gone topsy-turvy in the world. How can you be in boom one year then just a few years later be in recession? How did it happen? What changed and why did no one see it coming?
My final mind-boggling question is, "Is it real/true anyway?" (I know- I'm beginning to sound like a conspiracy theorist!)
Take people I know. Essentially life is the same as it was before, except that they are more worried about the future, financially, and less inclined to spend money. This leads to a reduction in sales and demand for services, which affects businesses. Those businesses become worried about the future financially and start to reduce their workforce. People lose their jobs and it gets in the paper and on the TV. Then my friends and neighbours read the news and become more fearful about the future and the whole thing goes round in a self fulfilling prophecy loop. So who started the loop and on what basis?

I suppose I am not really questioning whether there is a recession- the evidence is all around me BUT I just can't help wondering what it all really means...........................

Sin again!

I guess, if you have been reading my blog posts sequentially, you may have been amazed that I have written two longish posts on sin without mentioning God at all. Well, that's about to change!

The reason that I didn't mention God before was that sometimes people read the word "God" then switch off to everything else that is written in the same paragraph. I guess I wanted to show how sin is part of our everyday experience and inseparable from many of our troubles and problems in life(whether we believe in God or not) . I also wanted to recognise the fact that sin isn't just "out there" but is also "in me".

Where that leaves us is.......sunk! Because sin is endemic, we are in no position to help ourselves out of the mess we are in.

That's why I have to mention God now. Christians believe that God reveals himself and his plans through the Bible, but also that they can and do experience him in their day to day lives.

Atheism seems to be very fashionable at present, with some high-profilers making a lot of noise about trying to get rid of religion. They cite wars and injustices done in the name of God as the justification for their claim that religion is a poison. They unsurprisingly do not document wars and atrocities carried out by atheists such as Stalin, PolPot and others.

These atheists have been very successful at spreading their views but if you stand back and look dispassionately at organisations fighting for social justice, looking after the poor and marginalised and improving conditions for everyday people, it is hard to find one which was not started by Christians. Many still have a strong Christian ethos today.

We can all point to terrible historical events carried out in the name of religion, but honesty compels us to acknowledge that our world would be a very different place today if it weren't for the influence and actions of Christians throughout the ages, in all spheres of life.

In addition are the evidences of radical changes in people's lives. Churches are places where you will find ex-alcoholics, ex-drug-addicts and ex-criminals. Why? Because God has made a change in them from the inside out.

That is why God has to come into the picture if you want to find a remedy for sin. God can change people inside, in a way which no education programme or prison rehabilitation programme can.

So how does God deal with sin and make a difference in our lives? You'll have to wait for another installment, as I have to go and make supper!

Enjoying life

I have to admit to being very happy with my life. It is crazy-busy and complex at times, but actually I just love the variety.
In the last week I have:

• Gone to photograph litter on an estate and seen waxwings (rather beautiful migrant birds) on bushes next to the path
• Delivered posters around town centre shops and talked to shop keepers
• Made mince pies and cardboard angels
• Taught 4 -7 year olds in Sunday School
• Visited a huge marble "temple" for the worship of materialism, namely the Trafford Shopping Centre in Manchester
• Worked on two different paintings
• Seen a video of my 6 month old granddaughter pulling herself up to standing
• Chaired a meeting to set up a footpaths and bridleways group
• Attended a lunch for prospective town clerk candidates
• Sent out an email newsletter to customers

And that's just the stuff I can remember!

One thing that occurs to me is that, though I haven't always enjoyed life, I have never wanted to live anyone else's life. Even when I was being bullied at school, I didn't wish to be anyone else. Although I did often wish to be me in a different time and place!
I wish I had known then what I know now, about living at peace with yourself, accepting the bad things as a season that will end (as all seasons end) and about enjoying the things that are in front of you. It is hard to be entirely downcast when there are waxwings, mincepies and granddaughters to be appreciated and enjoyed!