Green Patches

Calling The Midwife (2)

There's a newly started discussion thread over on Shipoffools on Call The Midwife for anybody who's interested.

Calling the midwife

 - My late mother's pupil midwife casebook, 1946-7

It's Sunday evening, it's snowy outside, warm and cosy inside and I'm just about to make a Nice Cup of Tea and settle down with the BBC Drama Call The Midwife.

I've written about why the series has a special meaning for me over on my Musings blog on The Wibsite. Do feel free to pop over there.

Franciscan Nativity and Carolling

'Cult of the Holy Manger:'   Suite 101 writes about Francis, Jacapone di Todi and their Franciscan influence, not only on  on the development of the nativity scenes, but also on  those familiar  carols that we love to sing at this time of year.

Then for UK readers, they've flagged up the new  drama 'The Nativity,' by Tony Jordan, due to be screening on the BBC over four evenings next week. From the copy, it looks to be an exciting, slightly alternative look at the traditional birth narratives; worth giving a look.

 

 

When I in awesome wonder...

photo (c) Freefoto.com

I'll admit that I'm not normally a Songs of Praise fan. However, at church this  morning, somebody kindly mentioned to me  that last week's  programme was set in the West Highland Way, parts of which Mr GP and I intend  to walk sometime next year. So, I tuned in, courtesy of i-player, and fairly had my breath taken away. Talk about having a "How Great Thou Art" moment.  If the Western Highlands look so gloriously awe inspiring on screen, how much more they must be "in the flesh!"

Get Knotted?

Typical, absolutely typical!  You'll remember I blogged about dreams, Dr Who and the difficulties in producing one (dream, not David Tennant et al) for  public consumption at the course down in the land of Brisk Sea Breezes recently.  More than a week after the dream session, what happens? Yes - you've got it: a fevered and annoyingly elusive mix of an old place of work, annoyingly beautiful people, (suspect there may be a link here to the  'evo takover' in Monday night's episode of 'Rev.' ), the  Sealed Knot (civil war re-enactment society for those not in the know) and Mr Greenpatch in the shower. (No, don't worry; this last's not what you think!)  What's a girl supposed to make of all that?

The picture, by the way,is the 'Bonds of Friendship' memorial in Old Portsmouth, the granite for which was presented to the UK by the inhabitants of Sydney, Australia,   commemorating  the first sailing of settlers from Portsmouth to Botany Bay.  So, what has all this to do with the Sealed Knot? Well, on Tuesday evening, en route to the course, I took a stroll down by the seawall. I'd seen the statue before, but had never bothered to check out it's history. At risk of lowering the cultural tone, my mind was on other things at the time  - I was feeling slightly under the weather again,and, I'm afraid my first thought was that the memorial resembled nothing so much as the illustration on my packet of Colpermin anti-spasmodic capsules! Oh the shame!  But that Sealed Knot connection is just too much of a co-incidence, isn't it? No doubt a Jungian analyst would have a field day with it all. (Please, no comments  'What is your gut feeling about this?' please!) 

Let's hope my inept attempts at interpretation don't cause an international incident between our two countries.  Mr GP says that if I don't reappear after the final session next week, he'll be extremely suspicious.  After all, that area of the town used to be the haunt of the  notorious press gangs; even popping in for a quick pint was fraught with peril. I shall have to lie low.  

Slow Down - 'The Silence'

Coming soon - if you live in the UK  - to a TV near you, 'The Silence,'
 In a new three-part documentary series, The Silence, five people attempt to put silence at the heart of their everyday, busy lives and learn what to do with it once it's there. The series investigates just why "peace and quiet" is so elusive, and in doing so opens up a debate about why some people try to avoid silence because of the reflection that it may bring. Do people construct layers of noise, or "busy-ness" to dull the anxieties of the modern world? The Silence looks at what might happen to the inner self when people keep quiet. "
Now that we've recovered from our holiday, I've been enjoying the current sunny spell. It seems to have given me an unexpected burst of energy so the last few days have seen me catching up on all sorts of jobs that I'd been  neglecting for ages. One of which was to highlight this upcoming series. From the clip it looks to be along similar lines as the popular The Monastry and The Convent. I'll certainly be watching if I can. Both these programmes, as for many I'd suspect, have had not a little influence on my own journey, both into TSSF and generally. 

My own particular challenge to incorporate silence into my everyday lives is coming up very soon as I take part in a Week of Accompanied Prayer   as part of my course, (I meet my prayer guide on Friday). It'll be a new experience for me, even if I am a fair old veteran of guided retreats by now. Not insignificantly for all of us taking part, it's scheduled just before our final term - an introduction to training for spiritual direction. We received some initial material for the latter last night and I'll admit to a teensiest wobble of self-doubt. 'Be still and know...' is the only way to go, I reckon!

Merry Christmas

Belated Christmas greetings. If you've just stumbled across this blog - welcome; if you're a regular (are there any?) hope your Christmas so far is what you'd hoped it would be and more.

 Over in Greenpatch land, we've experienced a white Christmas for what must be the first time in living memory; even if it only lasted for The Day itself. Actually, that's not quite true; snow around  Christmastime wasn't unknown when we lived in France. We have fond...or otherwise - memories of the time it was so cold that the car locks froze; when the chaplain had to drive out to collect the church organist, who lived at the top of a hill, or when we had to use another church for our carol service because, if I remember rightly - the heating at our home church had broken down.  Happy days.

But this Christmas eve was definitely the first time Mr M and have had to don walking boots in order to get ourselves up the hill to midnight mass. Much against the advice of the two junior Greenpatches, I might add, who seem to be  quite protective of their poor  old parents of late. They were out at the pub,  of course; however, I get the impression they'd rather we were safely home tucked up in bed with a cup of cocoa, rather than  galliavanting around singing carols and suchlike amidst clouds of incense and dripping candles. Whatever happened to Health and Safety?

Never mind, in the event all went well, nobody set themselves alight, I'd no need to reach for my inhaler,and the lady sitting next to Mr GP harmonised so beautifully during the carols that I'll forgive she and her neighbour their flagrant breaching of Communion etiquette, (the rule that dictates that those nearest the aisle let those furthest away go up to receive first , so avoiding the blockage on the way back when I and another poor soul had to hover what seemed like ages at the end of the row whilst the others finished their rather prolonged post eucharistic private devotions.) I have the gift of patience and humility in equal measures, as you'll no doubt have gathered!

That's the serious stuff out of the way. For fun, frivolity and memories of times past,   do pop over to my other blog. 

Enough

From Mr Greenpatch's cycle blog:

Have been catching up on some reading. Particuluarly impressed by "Enough" by John Naish. (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Enough-John-Naish/dp/0340935901)

The central tenet of this book is that we would be happier if we could realise when we have enough of something and having more won't make us any happier, indeed could make us feel worse. (Interview here gives a feel of the ideas:
http://www.newconsumer.com/news/item/we_speak_to_john_naish_author_of_enough/

This simple proposition is one of the pieces of wisdom I have come to realise as I get older. An e.g. of how I applied a couple of years back was in taking the policy decision to break the ages old habit of listening to the Today program from the moment of waking to arriving at work. I felt I had reached to point of news saturation. This doesn't mean I have cut myself of from the real world, I will listen to news headlines/peruse the BBC online news/watch the occasional newsnight and avidly listen to podcasts on subjects of special interest or quality ("From our own correspondent" being an e.g. of latter).

What I don't want to do is fill every idle moment with news updates which seems to be the desire of 24 hour news channels (and apparently society in general if the evidence of our dentist waiting room is anything to go by. A giant plasma screen has been installed there showing BBC News 24 as if somehow hearing about a stock market crash here or the latest news of the diana inquest there is going to take patients minds off the upcoming visit to the dentist's chair...)

Back to the book, the crucial world is in the title. One of the pre-requisites to knowing when you have enough is having sufficent of something in the first place. So really its a new experience for us, as recently as my parent's generation scarcity was the norm. Also having enough means having more than nothing. So its OK for me to want (any buy) a high tech gadget that I can attach to my bike to help me navigate my rides without constant stops/recourse to maps.