Green Patches

Advent Blog of The Week - The Mercy Blog and Weeble's Wonderings

 

Advent Prayer

 

Lord, still us this today and in this Advent Season – keep us wide awake in these days of waiting. Take from us our anxieties and our preoccupations, our distractions and our despair. Let us be empty in this time before, awaiting your coming with empty hands, and open hearts…

 

Lord, prepare us for your coming. Fill us with the hope of your judgement, and a longing for your justice. Let our hope and our prayer be always for this broken creation of which we are part. Have mercy on all who suffer, human or animal. Help us to bring the good news of your coming, the comfort of hope, the joy of this new kind of waiting…

 

Amen

 - with thanks to Mike F of The Mercy Blog

One evening last week, I was  in  our contemplative prayer group at church, when, towards the end of the session, I was suddenly, as I've described it to myself 'hi-jacked' by a memory  of an item which I'd read in the paper earlier in the day: a particularly horrible example of  pure, gratuitous violence towards a poor, helpless animal, the which defies all belief and about which I simply can't bring myself to give any more details here.  There followed  a  fraught few minutes whilst I  tried alternately to a) push the distraction aside, or b) give  it to God, which last unfortunately and again without giving any details (shudders) seemed unavoidably to involve 're-living it.'  All clever theological explanations seemed pretty irrelevant  just then, and to be honest, pretty feeble, too. We're back to that evergreen topic of theodicy 'How could you, God?'

I've since re-commbobulated myself, so to speak...just, and can see, I think, that this struggle was likely the latest in a series of 'answers,' to a prayer I made leading on from what I brought out of retreat. Why I should be surprised, I don't know. I do think prayer should come with a health warning, though.  Do Not Be Surprised If You Get What You Ask For. 

So the petitions in the prayer "Have mercy on all who suffer, human or animal..." resonates with me as we begin Advent.

 

 

Over on A Weeble's Wonderings Avila reflects on the ever-present struggle with life-work balance and the need to know when and to press those 'recharge' buttons. I chose it for personal reasons; thanks be to God their situation is not my own although some of the issues mentioned do touch several loved ones close to home. It was the final paragraph that spoke to  me however. The 'Who Am I? What Am I?' question and my tendency to define myself solely in relation to the role (I perceive) other people see me in and to whether I shape up to that perception,  has been around now as long as I can remember. We Are Improving slowly....which is good...yet still very much a Work In Progress...

I started with the title 'Who am I? What am I?' - when we can no longer answer these about ourselves, rather than just in relation to other people or roles, then it is a sign we need to find respite, and to find ourselves again.

 - A Weeble's Wonderings - Who Am I? What Am I?

 

  

 

 

Late but not 'late' Blog of The Week - Rory is Available

Yes, I know that this is Wednesday, not Monday.  Yes, I know that Greenpatches hasn't been vocal over the last few weeks; partly due to ennui, partly because she's been holed up in the wilds of North Wales, contemplating her navel.  To be blunt: I'm speechless. More later maybe...

So, what better way to begin to shift the 'bloggage' by sounding the trumpet for another faithful blogger and long-standing member of the blogroll over on my other blog: the keeper of the witty, wise and wonderful Mr Gnome, Rory Keegan. Rory says:

 

Bravo for brilliant visionaries! 

I’m privileged to work with many such men and women, enabling them to turn dream to reality: finding the format, perfecting the text, sourcing the packaging and liaising with a legion of creative professionals (illustrators, video producers, graphic designers) to deliver projects on time and on budget - in short, the whole kit and caboodle.

I'm Rory Keegan: resourceful, reliable and ready for new opportunities. 

 - Find out more about Rory's work  over on Rory is Available

 

Oh, and while you're there, don't forget to say hello to his equally witty and urbane friend, Mr Gnome

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.  

Overlooked during Lent

Simon Marsh reflects on "wilderness" and thanksgiving:

What kind of training and help do I need in order to arrive at a good decision about what I may or may not offer back to God? Is there anyone whose example I might follow? Is there man, woman or child who has risen above the grubby business of self-interest and temptation; anyone I can look up to, be inspired by, want to emulate? Where could I engage such a person in conversation? Where could I learn what inspired and motivated him or her? How can I learn not to feel pain when I give something away, but rather to revel in the laughter and joy of God’s creation itself? How do I learn to be a cheerful giver? Who am I? What am I called to be and do? And how?

THERE’S AN “ESSENTIALS” CLUE IN THE “WILDERNESS” …

read more here.

Spiritual spam ?

credit:freedigitalphotos.net

We've had 'Families and How to Survive Them,' 'Churches and How to Survive Them,' and now the EMail Survival Guide. Author Paul Johnson, interviewed on local radio this morning, had some dire warnings about the  ways in which our computers have joined mobile phones and sundry other pieces of electronic gagetry to ensure that we can be in constant touch with each other, 24/7. Not exactly my idea of heaven. Not that I don't appreciate the ease of communication which these have brought us. But I - like I'm sure countless others, do sometimes regret the passing of the element of human contact. A bit of a paradox, really. We've an ease of communication that once, might have seemed an impossible dream, yet, maybe, at a deeper level, we've never been as out of touch

When did you last write (or receive) a letter for instance? A proper  letter, I mean. One of my treasured possessions is a bundle of letters from my mother, written over a period of ten years or more. To glance back through them is to revive memories of student traumas , first jobs and marriage, settling down, early motherhood, our move abroad, her ill health and last illness. If  Email had been used then, would I have bothered to save these messages? Would I have bothered to go back and read and re-read them? Who knows?

On a related note, there's some good stuff  here and here on overload of a different type. As one of the commenters says, who would have realised that decluttering your possessions has implications for your spiritual life?

I just hope no one feels called to do an audit of my ironing basket.