Catching up

I've been away for a week and was not able to post but here are my notes for each day that I would have posted if I could....

Friday 22^nd May

The good Samaritan

Today I met a good Samaritan. He was a farmer on his way to mend a fence. I had had a puncture in my bike tyre. Like all well equipped cyclists I was carrying a spare inner tube. I changed it efficiently at the roadside. Then I got out my pump and tried to inflate the tyre. But nothing happened. The pump wouldn't work. Wouldn't fit properly. When it had happened I waved to my friends who were riding with me to carry on to the lunch stop- confident of my bike engineering and that I would see them for lunch. So I was alone on this narrow country road with no passing traffic. I set out to walk the three miles to the abbey where I knew they would be waiting. And surely one of them would have a working pump that would fit.

Then along came my farmer. He pulled up and asked what was up.

I told him my tale and he told me to throw the bike on the back of his truck and climb in beside the dog and he would take me a couple of miles down the road. And he did. And as he dropped me off at the top of a long descent where I could see at the bottom the abbey at which my friends would be waiting . A fifteen minute walk and I was with them and I found the pump and was ready to go.

Thank God for good Samaritans.

Saturday 23^rd May

It has been a day of sunshine and heavy showers as we did a 35 mile tour of the countryside by cycle today. There was a lovely café for lunch with home made soup and carrot cake. The thing that made today special was the trail of art and craft studios that were open. A barn had chainsaw wood carvings, a front room had paintings and prints and a converted outhouse was a photographers gallery not to mention the ramshackle farmhouse that had ceramics displayed all over it! Loads of talented people trying to make a living off the visiting public – and being welcoming to a group of cyclists who they knew would look but not be able to carry and therefore buy anything. I saw a statue that I would like in the garden but she who must be obeyed said definitely NO. It makes me glad that I have a regular pay check and don't have to rely on selling my talents from my front door or garage. It does make me wonder though what people would be prepared to pay for what I do!? That is a sobering thought! Perhaps some of those overpaid financiers and politicians with their snouts in the trough would do well to ponder on what ordinary people judge that they are worth.

Sunday 24^th may

what goes up also goes down...

that old adage is so true for cyclists. Hills cause you to sweat and puff all the way up but you are rewarded with a long wizz down afterwards. Wheee... hope the brakes work

unfortunately the only place you get all the whees down with no toiling up is when you are skiing!

The rest of life requires you to struggle for the uphill in order to enjoy the downhill whee run..

if you coast through life you will never enjoy the exhilaration of a long run as you will not have built up the potential energy. For that is what it is – building up potential energy.

We need the energy we build up during the good times to give us strength for any times of difficulty.

Summoned by the bell

Threave Castle near Castle Douglas was the destination for my cycle ride today. This castle is on an island and requires you to ring a big brass bell hanging up by the jetty to summon the ferryman who will come and take you across to the castle. The ferry is a small motor launch that can take about four passengers at a time so they are not overwhelmed with visitors. As I looked at the boat and the bell I thought of the legend of the ferryman who would ferry people over from this life to the world beyond in Greek mythology. I think he was called styx or something like that. It is a nice image of passing from this life to the hereafter with a friendly ferryman and a boat on a calm crossing. Humans have had lots of picture language to describe the journey we make at the end of life. One of the problems for modern people who have rejected all the traditional religious pictures - what will replace them – the scientific picture is bleak and cheerless. The traditional picture often doesn't resonate for many . Perhaps we need images to help people understand what life after death means. For unless the traditional religions and for me especially the Christian church , can supply this creatively and catch the public imagination – then there are all sorts of New religious movements with all sorts of wacky ideas waiting in the wings.

Tuesday 26^th May

I crossed Mull today on the bus. 40 miles from Craignure to fionnofort. And the bus driver was having one of those days.... I could tell by the way he interacted with the people who approached him. To the question where is this bus for he replied it says on the side! To the man who who said is this finofort he replied no this is craignure. To the couple who asked for tickets to Dunessan he replied “there is no place of that name on mull.” after some umming and aarring and they spent several moments looking for the details of the address they were heading for he relented and said – Do you mean Bunessan!? He showed in everything he said that he was having one of those days....

I wonder if it is as noticeable when I have one of those days as we all do.... But it was a lovely bus ride across the island – the weather was clear and the views spectacular. And by the end of it as we got off and said thanks to the diver it seemed he had mellowed too.

Wednesday 27^th May

I found a lovely poem today. Thinking about peaceful people R S Thomas wrote “farm wife” here is someone you warm to – who's presence conveys peace just by being with them ...

FARM WIFE

by R S Thomas

Hers is the clean apron, good for fire

Or lamp to embroider, as we talk slowly

In the long kitchen, while the white dough

Turns to pastry in the great oven,

Sweetly and surely as hay making

In a June meadow; hers are the hands,

Humble with milking, but still now

In her wide lap as though they heard

A quiet music, hers being the voice

that coaxes time back to the shadows

in the rooms corners. O, hers is all

This strong body, the safe island

Where men may come, sons and lovers,

Daring the cold seas of her eyes.

This was in an anthology of poems in the cottage I am staying in on the island of Iona. It is a small cottage let to Holiday makers but unlike many so called holiday cotages this one has been left just as the family moved out. The bookshelves stuffed with an eclectic collection of antiquarian and other interesting books. The walls cpovered with antique prints of real quality and value. Yet here – open for visitors to use – the owner a retired minister must be so trustign of others.. so unconcerned to protect his own property – Perhaps if I lived in a place like this I could have a similar attitude but its just not practical where we live in the city – or is it?

Thursday 28th May

Friendship needs nurture not to wither and die - thus spending a couple of days with guys from college days over 20 years ago was a special time. Time to catch up on stories from the intervening years. Time to think about what we have achieved and if we are now still as equally convinced of our call to be ministers as we were 20 years ago - And that is an interesting question to which we all agreed that the job had changed so much and now we were spending much more time doing things we were not initially called to do. Interesting to think about call and if it changes or if it stands unchanged for all time. We were all still in the church but we were doing things we were not trained for and didn't enter the church to do.

Off for a few days

I'm off for a few days from tonight - holiday- vacation - and no regular internet connection. But there is a long list of all the things to be done before I can go and a long list of things to get ready to take with me. No wonder going away can be more stressful than staying at home.
We will be in Dumfries and Galloway - camping!!!
We hope that a break will re-charge our batteries but isn't it ironic that I have spent much of today making sure all the gadgets we are taking with us have got their batteries charged up (cameras, phones, torch, laptop!) Wasn't life simpler in days gone by! I am not a gadget fanatic but there are some things I would find it difficult to do without now that I have got used to having them.
We have all to some extent been brainwashed by the consumption pushing advertisers. I am not advocating going back to the stone age but I believe we need to think much more about what we really need and not just get things because they are there! Alistair MacIntosh in his challenging book "Hell and high water" argues that it is this attitude that has created the excessive consumerism which is the engine that has driven climate change.
Going camping will be a real test of whether I mean this or not!

Look aboot ye

I have heard that some people are forecasting that we will have a very hot summer this year – well we have all heard that before so I guess we will just have to wait and see. The summer, whatever the weather gives us an opportunity to get out and about whether on a day trip or for a longer holiday. And wherever we go, near or far, we usually find a change of scene makes for a good break.

In Alloa the other day I noticed a waste bin. On the front was the Clackmannanshire Council crest which has the motto “Look aboot ye”. These are said to be the words spoken to King Robert Bruce when he lost his glove during a hunting expedition. After a search the glove was found on a slope to the south of the present site of Clackmannan town. Alloa isn't the most picturesque town in Scotland but when you “look aboot ye” you see the dominating Ochil hills, the River Forth, Alloa Tower, and some fine trees and parkland.

When we go on holiday we “look aboot” and notice the landscape and the interesting buildings but when we are home we are so used to the things we see every day that we no longer notice the hills or the architecture.

As I mentioned last week, my aunt who died earlier this year was a talented amateur artist. At her request the following verse was read out at her funeral service.

"The wonder of the world, the beauty and the power, the shapes of things, their colours, lights, and shades; these I saw. Look ye also while life lasts."

The author of these words is unknown but the text is chiselled into a large memorial wall for Alexander Morton (1844-1924) which is located in Darvel, East Ayrshire. He was a Victorian industrialist who built up the local textile industry.

The two quotations sum up an attitude to life of learning to keep your eyes open all the time and notice the people and places around you. This is fun on holiday when we are exploring a new place for the first time. But it is also important at home where taking things for granted can become a way of life which if taken to an extreme means we can miss so much.

God has made a beautiful world and we can glimpse this everywhere. The ability to see beauty in unexpected places is a God -given gift. We can develop it if we “train the eye” to look for beauty. One of the best ways to do that is to take lots of pictures, which can now be done cheaply with a digital camera. Once we upload the photos onto a computer, we can enjoy the beauty long after the time we took the photos. Since God has placed beauty, truth, and goodness all around, may He never need to say to us, ‘Do you have eyes and fail to see’ (Mark 8:18).

(Picture Castle Campbell, Dollar, Clackmannanshire)

Speed vs stamina

I have just fitted a new cycle computer to the handlebars of my bike. This one is more complex that the previous one I had. It not only tells speed, distance, maximum speed, average speed, time, temperature, but also calories burned. My max speed is now at just over 20 as I went down a long hill today! But more important is the average speed figure - how am I doing overall? And then there is this idea of calories burned - I am not needing to loose weight but do I wonder how a magnet on the wheel of the bike can tell how much energy I have used from the data it recieves!
I am going away on a cycling weekend in three days time and these figures matter. Speed matters as when I am going out with a group I want to know that I can keep up - there is nothing more demoralising that trailing behind a group of fast cyclists and every time they stop for a rest you just about catch up and it is time for them to set off again. Average speed is important as I need to know that I can keep up the pace for a whole day ride. Distance is important as it is satisfying to know that you have broken through certain psychological distance barriers. And I suppose the calories consumed tells you something about stamina though I am not sure quite what!
Speed and stamina - it is a "both and" requirement and not the opposites as in the fable of the tortoise and the hare.
In the church we struggle with the question of speed verses stamina. We are here for the long haul - and we need energy to achieve anything but we have to pace ourselves. Burn out comes when Christians try and do everything to bring in the kingdom of God on their own and in one go. You do not set off to ride from Land's End to John O Groats without doing training rides to build up for the challenge. We all have our own little mission and ministry to fulfil and we believe that it is all a part of God's overall plan. And we must not get discouraged when we think that our contribution is too small and insignificant. Every great achievenment is made up of loads of tiny acts.
Point yourself in the right direction, and set off, keeping a measurement of your speed and distance travelled and most of all enjoy the ride!

Thinking back to Easter

I had a shock when I opened one of the free newspapers last week. There was a photo of me on the inside front cover carrying a huge wooden cross at the front of the Good Friday procession through the town. As I looked at the photo I wondered what people at the side of the street doing their shopping made of it. I thought it looked strange but then I don't like looking at pictures of myself!
I wonder what the effect of our walk of witness was. Some people who saw us may have had their memory jogged that this was not just any old Friday. Some might have seen the cross and thought "religious people at it again". Some would have been frustrated because we caused a hold up to the traffic and delayed their journey. Some would have no idea at all as to what was going on or been so caught up in their own business that they didn't notice we were there.(Though that might have been difficult as we were led by a bagpiper playing Easter hymns as well as his limited range of notes would allow!)
But there might just have been someone who saw us all ( and there was a good big crowd) and thought that Christianity isn't finished yet - if all these folks can give up time to walk through town doing this then perhaps I shouldn't reject Jesus without giving him a proper hearing. And if just one person thought that, then I am delighted to have carried the cross.

What was lost is found!

Yesterday I lost some keys. Well today they are found. They were in a plastic bag of miscellaneous bits and pieces that I had taken with me to a home group meeting to play the memory game. (Everyone knows the game - items covered on a tray - remove cover and give people a minute to memorise as many as possible then recover the tray and people have to write a list of what was there) I had used this little bunch of keys and wonder of wonders I also found my library card in the bag too - that had been lost and I have been taking books out on my wife's card for several months!

We sang "All things Bright and Beautiful" in church this morning - I was reminded that the last time I sang it was at my Aunty Vera's funeral. She was a talented amateur artist and she asked for the following little verse to be read out at the crematorium. I don't know where it came from or who the author was but it was appropriate for her.

The wonder of the world
The beauty and the power,
The shapes of things,
their lights and shades
These I saw.
Look ye also, while life lasts.

Keys

Now here is a fix. I have lost a small bunch of keys. They are quite important - but I haven't needed them for a couple of years so I assumed they were on the hook with all my other keys. But today I needed to look in that locked place and they were missing. I remember using them a couple of years ago. I remember what they look like and remember the colour of the leather fob but where can they have got to. Something so small but yet so powerful and capable of causing no end of bother.
I have searched high and low for them but so far no good. I think I will have put them in a pocket after I last used them and perhaps not returned them to their home hook but what on earth would I have been wearing two years ago.
No wonder Jesus used the word Keys when he was handing over responsibility to his disciple Peter because they are highly symbolic by the power they give to open and close otherwise impenetrable doors.
I'll keep searching but it may have to be a visit to a locksmith.
And I am still waiting for the plumber to fulfil his promise.

Climate change - news

George Monbiot in his Guardian blog today says "Two weeks ago a momentous event occurred: the beginning of the world's first evacuation of an entire people as a result of manmade global warming..... The Carteret Islands are off the coast of Bougainville, which, in turn, is off the coast of Papua New Guinea. They are small coral atolls on which 2,600 people live.... There are compounding factors – the removal of mangrove forests and some local volcanic activity – but the main problem appears to be rising sea levels. The highest point of the islands is 170cm above the sea..... this appears to be the first time that an entire people have started leaving their homes as a result of current global warming. Their numbers might be small, but this is the event that foreshadows the likely mass displacement of people from coastal cities and low-lying regions as a result of rising sea levels. The disaster has begun, but so far hardly anyone has noticed. "
This makes the discussion we had about local sustainability and carbon footprints at the eco-congregation network meeting last night seem all the more relevant and urgent. This is not a purely theoretical matter for the church heating needs renewing. If we are to take our care for creation seriously we should make the efficiency of what we choose to be the top priority. The church is in the centre of town and built on solid rock so the option of a ground source heat pump is not open to us. And if we choose the wrong heating system then this will make us responsible for more people from low lying places having to evacuate their homes.
On the home front the plumber has still not arrived to fix the non functioning toilet.

New poem

I was introduced to this poem today:

THE BRIGHT FIELD by RS Thomas

I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great price, the one field that had
the treasure in it. I realise now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying
on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

A habit is 21 days

Interesting comment tonight at the church meeting - if you do something for 21 days then it becomes a habit.
It was in the context of spiritual disciplines such as daily devotional reading, prayer time, bible reading or meditation. Is that really all it takes to ingrain something into your daily routine? Do it for twenty one days or three short weeks and you can do it for ever.
I follow the prayer pattern in the prayer handbook "Living Fire" and the Iona community book every day and that is an important part of my daily routine. If for some reason I can't do it I feel my day has missed something. But I wasn't aware of a three week point when it felt different doing it.
It is a good way to encourage people - if they can keep the discipline for 21 days then they have mastered it.
I wonder if this three week rule also applies to tackling other habits such as giving up smoking? I don't smoke so I can't try.

Beginning

This is the start of a new journey - I've never had a blog before.
What a momentus day to start - not only the day when I'm waiting for the plumber to arrive to fix a flooding toilet - but also the day of our 25th wedding anniversary. Was it really 25 years ago that I wore top hat and tails for the only time in my life!
Today has made me wonder how many of the dozens of people I have performed marriage ceremonies for over the last 21 years are still together? Not that all of them didn't fervently hope they were doing the right thing and meant it when they said "til death do us part".
For us today is a day for celebrating love and commitment. And I am still in love!
Everyone has ups and downs in their relationships and we have had our share but it has been an adventure - a journey of exploration and I look forward to the adventures continuing for the next 25 years and beyond. Now where is that plumber?