Loving creation

"Love all God's creation, the whole and every grain of sand of it. Love every leaf, every ray of God's light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love." Dostoevsky

This is creation time in the church calender - when we celebrate harvest festivals. I was at one in the local primary school yesterday and the children brought gifts to be distributed to local old folks and had a theme of thankfulness for the good things from the earth.

But in the quotation we are called to go much further. This sort of deep spiritual respect for creation and reverence of it involves looking at the earth as a God of love must look at all that He has made. Loving involves embracing with the emotions and that can hurt. By loving we make ourselves vulnerable. So we are careful who and what we love as we try to protect ourselves. But this quotation reveals a greater truth - that though we might think that we do not have enough love to go round - if we give honestly of what we have, we will find ourselves renewed and refreshed so that we can give more that we ever knew we possesed. If we keep it to ourselves we will never find the potential vast love that is latent within us....

The cost of socialising

I was at student inductions today - giving my presentation on what chaplaincy could do for the new students....

What caught my eye was the student union handbook which put an estimate of what freshers week could cost. It came to over £500. Now much of this was essential start up costs of coming to university such as fees to join societies and food and rent.

BUT what really "gobsmacked" me was the estimate of £230 for entertainment - three good nights out two medium nights out and two days in to recover. And if that is an average what must some of the highest spenders get through in the bars and clubs. I suppose I have not been to a nightclub for years and do not buy lots of drinks but wow is this how students get so much debt! I begin to realise what a sheltered and non typical life I lead. But then that is my choice.

I wonder if all these young people are making a free choice and how much peer pressure there is to conform to the hard drinking stereotype of the typical student.

I must find a way to find out more and and an appropriate forum to discuss this issue.

Fujipix Camera - a miracle

Digital cameras are highly complex items of technology with computer chips, glass lenses, and electric motors working in harmony to take great pictures when you point and shoot.

But my daughters little Fujipix camera stopped working. No warning - just taking pictures one moment and not the next. It would just not switch on. You pressed the on button and a little green light flashed then nothing. Now I'm not one to give up without having a poke around inside and there was nothing loose I could see and the batteries were fully charged(I'm told batteries are one of the major reasons for faults in digital cameras!) So onto the Internet to see if anyone has found a similar fault. And after half an hour I found not only what was wrong - someone helpfully described the same symptoms as were affecting our little Fujipix but also told us how to fix it!

Now this is the best bit... I fixed it with a quarter inch piece broken off the end of a matchstick! It seems there is a little lug on the battery door that has to fit in a hole so the camera stays switched off when the battery door is open. This little lug breaks off quite often and a matchstick shoved into the hole can effect a repair! I rate this as one of the best amateur fixes for a piece of sophisticated hi tech equipment ever! It seemed like a miracle when with this little bit of rubbish stuffed into the hole made the whole thing come back to life!

It reminds me how every little thing, however small, has a part to play. Anything that gets broken it can mess up a whole lot more complex things. Sometimes something very simple can have an effect far beyond our expectations. Think of how a smile from a stranger can lift your spirits. So remain alert at all times - everything we do, however small, is important.