I am just watching this film…
It is a powerful and harrowing animation telling the story of an Israeli trying to make sense of his half memories of fighting and killing in Beirut after 20 years.
Watch it!
Waltz with Bashir
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Lent 21…
It seemed for a while that this man was no longer an alien in this place.
The wild places had remembered him, taken him back as their own.
Lent 20…
And in the dark earth, a flower found itself again, and pushed out into the daylight at the mans feet.
He lay down and looked at this wonder. It held him in the spell of its delicate beauty.
He dreamed again of this new beginning. This new springtime.
Is it now father? Is now our time?
Helping, ‘fixing’ or serving…
I read this today- to which I add a rueful ‘Amen’-
Fundamentally, helping, fixing, and service are ways of seeing life. When you help you see life as weak, when you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. Helping incurs debt. When you help someone they owe you one. But serving, like healing is mutual. There is no debt. Fixing and helping are the basis of curing, but not of healing. In 40 years of chronic illness I have been helped by many people and fixed by a great many others who did not recognize my wholeness. All that fixing and helping left me wounded in some important and fundamental ways. Only service heals.
Rachel Naomi Remen
Excerpts from the article “In the service of life”
I blinked…
I blinked
And the weekend
Went by
These days-
Like feathered things
Fly
Lent 19…
And from the depths of his learning– singing into his heart, come the word of the poet-prophet, Isaiah;
.
The poor and needy search for water but find none
Their tongues are parched and dry
But I am there to be found. I will not forget
I will burst forth rivers from barren hills
Spout fountains in the valleys
I’ll turn the sun baked desert crust into a cool pond
I’ll make the wastelands into verdant streams
.
Fix your eyes on my servant
In whom I am well pleased
Lent 18…
Huge drops of rain pound at the dust. The air is as sweet and ripe as a red grape.
Dust turns to dirt, and dirt becomes soil.
And the water finds out the dry stream beds.
Pushing into cracks and parched ground. Seeking out the seeds long left behind.
Opening again those forgotten kernels of truth and life and letting them become again what they once came from.
Falling on his head. Running down his beard.
Anointing .
Baptising.
Bathing and soothing.
Lent 17…
That night he stood alone before the moon. Listening again for the voice.
Straining again for the call.
His face shone with the reflected light. Sun to moon. Moon to face. And he started to hope again.
Now is your time my son.
In you are my hopes, my dreams.
In you is everything I am.
In you is all my love, all my mercy, all my grace.
Now is your time…and mine.
Lent 16…
The terrible black birds drew near again. They caught the sweet smell of carrion
Blown in on the breeze.
Changing the world by relationship…
I read this today via the Emergent Village ‘Minimergent’ bulletin…
Despite current ads and slogans, the world doesn’t change one person at a time. It changes as networks of relationships form among people who discover they share a common cause and vision of what’s possible. This is good news for those of us intent on changing the world and creating a positive future. Rather than worry about critical mass, our work is to foster critical connections. We don’t need to convince large numbers of people to change; instead, we need to connect with kindred spirits. Through these relationships, we will develop the new knowledge, practices, courage, and commitment that lead to broad-based change.
Read entire article at Faith Collaboratory by clicking the names below.
The article make interesting reading as it was written a few years ago (2006) when the language of ’emergence’ was still fresh and exciting. We are part of a different time now. The article suggested an emerging process that goes something like this-
Berkana has developed a four stage model that catalyzes connections as the means to achieve global level change: Name, Connect, Nourish, Illuminate (see Appendix). We focus on discovering pioneering efforts and naming them as such. We then connect these efforts to other similar work globally. We nourish this network in many ways, but most essentially through creating opportunities for learning and sharing experiences and shifting into communities of practice. We also illuminate these pioneering efforts so that many more people will learn from them.
The article then suggested that the next stage would for communities of practice to develop an proliferate.
Is this what is happening?
Well- I think so…
this fragile tent 