I’m not an optimist, but I am a prisoner of hope…
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Hope…
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Advent thing day one, Dunoon West Bay- a few pics…
Just back from a day out in the cold celebrating Advent whilst people buy Christmas trees. Tired but happy…
Here are a few pics-
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- editation walk, Morag’s Fairy Glen.
Alzheimers, drugs, and a song of hope…
Sometimes I weep at what we are, and what we become.
The very heart of who we are, and the meaning we bring to our time spent in this fragile human tent- nothing brings this home more to us than becoming old. Facing the certainty of death.
We live in an aging population. I spend a lot of my time now chairing conferences where consideration is being given to the use of the Scottish Adults With Incapacity Act to enable the on going care of people who no longer have the capacity to make decisions for themselves. Most of these conferences relate to people who are older, and have a diagnosis of some form of dementia.
A news article last week brought me up sharp.It concerned a report
The medical care that we provide our oldest and most vulnerable people with at the end of their lives is killing around 1800 people a year.
Psychiatric drug prescribed to moderate behaviour and agitation kills people.
Only around 36,000 of the 180,000 people currently on the drugs in the UK are getting any benefit from them, the report said, leaving 144,000 people taking them unnecessarily.
This story was slipped into the pool of news with barely a ripple. No outcry. No calls for investigation. No heads on the chopping block. Just move on to another story… more celebrity drivel, or a bit of political scandal about a moat and a dodgy expenses claim.
How we look after our older people with dignity and compassion is one of the greatest challenges facing our generation in this country. Numbers of people experiencing dementia are set to double in the next 20 years. The percentage of the population of some towns (particularly seaside towns like mine) who have this difficulty will be very difficult for services to provide adequate care for.
At the same time, most health and social care budgets are already overspent, and likely to experience cuts in real terms.
I watched this film today, hence the reference to tears at the beginning of this post.
It is a beautiful film, full of tender care, hope and yearning, along with such sadness and loss.
And running through the middle of it all is music- the art that gives our lives meaning, even when almost all other things have been stripped away…
Hallelujah.
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World record number of sky lanterns- in Dunoon!
Well- not quite.
But I think we may well reach the record mumber of sky lanterns ever released at one time in Dunoon this weekend.
The real world record was set below Jakarta- below. They set off more than 10,000. Which is about as many people who live in Dunoon- so perhaps we have a chance.
By the way they are falling from the sky in flame in this clip, I assume that these lanterns were not fireproofed!
Winter takes a break…
I had a lovely drive back from Helensburgh today- all the mist moving around the mountains in the late afternoon stillness.
I had to stop a few times- here is why
Scottish advent calendar?
(What do you think to the snow on the blog by the way? A bit naff?)
My mate Andy sent me this today-
It made me laugh out loud.
Then smile ruefully.
Then feel a bit sad.
There will be a lot of drinking done in the next few weeks in the name of Jesus. Not that he was averse to the odd pint, or a carafe or two of the finest wine- just that this was never an end in itself…
So raise a glass or two with me and lets drink to wet the head of the Christ child, but as we all know, there is a morning after- and a glorious one at that. It would be a shame to spoil it with a hang over.
December…
Winter can be cruel
The darkness cover us, and cold winds close us off from one another
December comes, and the trees are bare
The hillsides become an impassable sponge, soaking up the rain that never seems to be far away
Where once a thousand bluebells blazed, it is now almost impossible to believe that anything can ever live again.
And into this time, comes the season of Advent
A time of waiting
A time to dare once again to hope
A time to re imagine the coming
Of a King
Who might yet
Light up everything
In brand new spring
Call of duty- donate whilst machine gunning…
Talking of Christmas spending and giving- my eyebrows rather shot skyward when I saw this advertisement on the TV yesterday.
Does anyone else find the combination rather bizarre- not to say a little obscene?
Or perhaps I am being unfair- it is a clever bit of marketing, and certainly the warfare the game is modelled on has left too many children in need of the support of War Child.
Join us for a Christian Aid BIG SING!
As part of our Advent Festival event next weekend (12th and 13th December) you are invited to participate in a BIG sing, at 2PM on both Saturday and Sunday.
Come along and sing! If you have an instrument and want to play along- send me a line, as it would be great to have a few more instruments too.
This is the blurb from the Christian Aid website
From 11 – 13 December, people from all across the UK will be singing for Christian Aid to raise more than £100,000 for people living in poverty around the world.Whether you are used to singing along to the radio at home, raising the roof with massed choirs, or joining in old favourites at the school concert, we can show you how to make your voice count in the fight against poverty.
If you can’t make it, then there is another very important way that you may be able to help- and that is by giving money!
You can make a credit card donation to the Aoradh page on the Christian Aid website here.
I know it is Christmas, a high spend time of year, and there are lots of other charities after your money, but I would be very grateful for any support you can give to this important cause.
Christian Aid have a particular appeal to support the people of Palestine. Grinding poverty, lack of running water, refugee camps where despair is the only available currency. Christian Aid are working to bring hope.
As part of our BIG SING, I re-wrote a famous carol-
Be interesting to see if we manage to carry it off…
Sky lanterns, and advent prayers…
As previously mentioned, Aoradh are doing a thing in Dunoon’s west bay next weekend- the 13th and 14th of December.
This will take the form of a partnership with some other community groups- the forestry commission, guides etc. The event was suggested by CLAN as a way of raising money/awareness for the development of the play park on the west bay. The forestry commission will be selling Christmas trees too.
Our bits will include an alternative worship thing, poetry, a Christian Aid BIG SING, mediation walk, and a mass sky lantern launch- this is the flier that we are including in the sky lantern pack-
The light keeps shining in the darkness, and the darkness can never put it out…
As part of our Advent festivities, Aoradh invite you to be part of a celebration of light.
Each year, we are plunged into a whirl of busyness around Christmas- all the presents we buy, the cards we send, the pressure of making ready for a feast. All these things are good, but it is so easy to lose sight of the Christ-child. We wanted to encourage one another to step aside, and reflect…
Our intention is to use these paper sky lantern as carriers of our hopes, expectations and prayers in this season of waiting, and so make our deliberate preparation for the coming Christmas.
You are invited to write prayers and thoughts on the lantern, and to be part of a MASS SKY LANTERN LAUNCH from the West Bay Dunoon, on Sunday the 13th of December, from 5.00 pm– weather permitting.
(NB We will need fairly calm, dry conditions for the mass launch to take place. If we are not able to launch on the Sunday, then we will go for 5.00 on Monday- then Tuesday and so on.)
The spectacle of a large number of sky lanterns rising over the Clyde together is something that we hope will live in our memories, as a visual reminder of the rising possibility of hope.
And of light flickering in the darkness…
Be careful as you write on the lanterns- they are fragile!
If you are wondering what a sky lantern is, or have never seen them launched, here is a clip. Imagine them rising up as prayers- powerful stuff!
this fragile tent 