Simplicity

Living with hopeful abandon!


What does it mean to live with complete and utter abandon?  The word abandon, in the world in which we live, suggests a negative thing.  Being left alone, discarded, uncared for, erased from memory.  It takes a lot to abandon I would say…

I am going to a Seth Lakeman concert - 2 actually!!  Woo hoo!!!
He rocks - for sure, for sure!

Quality isn't very good but I had to figure out how it all attached.  oops.

I am going to practise my guitar now... before phoning home and then heading out to hip hop class.

:)

I was musing with a friend of mine after church one evening, and we came to a strange, but true conclusion..

The older we have got we have tended to be closer to people of the same gender.  Talking to some of our pals (male and female) we realised that this was certainly true about the vast majority. 

ooooooh! What an exciting afternoon we have just had!  Ray and I have just been busting our guts getting this sorted and now we are there!!  Yay!!

This is it!!
The dates: Thur 22nd- Mon 26th May (so you only have to get one day off work (or none and come up a bit later).

And we are going to.....
                (drum roll please....)

So I thought I would drop a quick line in about my Valentines Day...

I don't have a load to say but I did manage to have a chat with a homeless guy who was sitting outside a Sainsburys. 

I asked him if he was alright and if there was anything that I could get him and he just said 'something hot'.  OK - that left me with a plethora of options ranging from a cup of coffee to a hot water bottle.. (but of course I was not really going to offer him a hot water bottle! Or should I have done?....I don't know!)

"Ringing alarm bells, traffic and weather reports
hurriedly pursue the eating of breakfast
and rush to begin the day.
No gentle shaking or slow awakening in this
sanctuary thats become a reminder that
time does not stand still.
Four walls and a bed for troubled sleep.
          All ash - with a diamond just flung in.

It is that time of the year again when couples and hopefuls are encouraged (by society) to do something special to remind/show thier loved ones how much they mean to them etc.  I am currently not in a relationship but thats not the reason for my first comment.

My first thoughts are that what Valentines Day is all about should be happening all the time and not just on Valentines Day.  There should be no need to set aside a day to show your affections - or is this just me?

Ash Wednesday...

Last night I went to an Ash Wednesday service and ended up staying up till about midnight writing the following...

I don't ever really remember what Ash Wednesday is about and what the significance of the ashen cross on the forehead is all about .  I thought it was a bold proclamation of the fact that you are christian without having to ever say the actual words.  Well - only to those who may have managed to get a glimpse of it as you slink back home in the shadows...

I have just been away on a church weekend and I found it really hard.  A lot of it!  ( I had originally written - ALL of it but there are some good friends of mine who I love dearly and got to share time with as well - that was good!)



The preaching was on the book of Philippians and it was really quite hard to take it all in.  This is the thing....