Check this out- Andy Prosser, virtuoso.
(Virtually)
(From our new year’s eve session! Thanks Chirsty)
Wild thong. You make everythong. Gravy. (Or words to that effect)
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Resolving…
We had a bit of fun with this today- Resolution randomizer.
It works a bit like a fruit machine, matching up three options to generate some useful (if slightly bizarre) NY resolutions.
Because, let’s be honest, most of my half hearted attempts have been pretty boring. You know the sort- I will lose weight and get fit. I will read the Bible more often. I will get up early to pray before the rising sun. I will organise and focus. I will motivate and set meaningful goals. I will set sail into a silver sea of achievement and fulfillment.
Until torpedoed by chocolate, and the many distractions and diversions that reality rolls in my way on a daily basis. Oh- and then there is my innate weakness of character…
Perhaps I am hard on myself. Sometimes I have kept resolutions- for whole days at a time!
It seems that I may not be alone.
But aspirations to change- they can not be bad can they? We seem to make remarkably consistent ones-
So do I bother this year?
No- but…
I have been thinking about what I would like to get into over the coming year.
I would like to get the wilderness mediations book/project thing into another gear- and for this, I will need to be fitter.
I would like to finish a couple of other writing projects.
Aoradh projects beckon too- a monthly session in a pub, the TENT thing, and performing 40 again in Lent.
Emerging Scotland stuff- our first meeting of the year is in a few weeks, and I would love to see this becoming a real network of friendship and support. I still see no other alternative that would provide this. (See here and here for more info.)
There are still other goals- but these are between me and mine. I may well fail, but perhaps that is never the issue…
As for you, my friends, may 2009 bring you adventure.
And may you remain in good company.
And walk with God.
2009- it’s here. Rejoice.
I have had a lovely few days of celebration, music and laughter.
Every year, out house fills up with friends for a NY house party. Rooms accumulate gatherings stratified according to a fluid set of gender/age/interest divisions. Someone is perpetually brewing/ cooking/playing music/theologising or leading a party of kids out for an expedition into the great outdoors…
Nights become well used and long, sleep is snatched only when necessary, and we eat too much, and drink not a little- but, to be honest, as we are mostly too prone to hangovers- tea is the favourite tipple these days.
Highlights for me this year were;
- Walks into the hills with kids. We gave out digital cameras, and instructed the groups to take photos of things beginning with every letter of the alphabet. Some very hilarious and creative offerings followed- my favourites were Z for Zit (plenty of teenagers, so no probs finding one!) and Q for queue. Andy put the photos in a slide show, and we showed them on a big screen later.
- Music. Sometimes when you try to make music together, it is hard and difficult. Not this time. We had keyboard, guitars, bouzouki, flute, fiddles whistles and percussion. Oh- and perhaps most of all, we had a room full of kids who loved every minute of it! ‘Wild thing’ and ‘In the Jungle, the mighty jungle’- dreadful songs both, with live long in memory.
- And talking of memory- I really think that experiences like this create collective memory. things that, once shared, become something of who we are. It seems all the more special that it involves the kids.
- Kids plays. this years offerings were ‘the monster in the cupboard’ who just seems to enjoy killing children- very blood thirsty, strong on characterisation, but not on plot development. Then there was the talent show- ‘Williams room’s got talent’. Let us just say that I thoroughly deserved minus 2004 points.
There was one other more complicated part to the gathering. Neil, who would have loved this weekend, was not here. But to have the chance to have long conversations with Sheila, his wife, was precious.
So my friends, far and near- may 2009 be a blessing to you. May you construct good memories that build health and life. And may you remember the difficult broken things with love and care. And may you move forward…
In hope.
Some photos;
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- The hill walkers who also photograph zits…
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- The new opium of the masses. We locked them in a cupboard later- they did not notice.
A day of mixed blessings…
The fridge grave yard.
Today was a strange kind of day.
We have a houseful of friends coming to stay for new year tomorrow- around 25 will somehow sleep here I think. This means getting the house ready- cleaning up, making space where currently there is clutter, and stocking up the cupboards with food for the masses.
I am really looking forward to seeing friends, catching up with the stuff of life, sitting round the fire with guitars and slow walks with the kids. It is always a time of blessing.
What was not a blessing was the breakdown of the fridge freezer- full of food for the week ahead! We found a replacement, and I suppose the old one had done it’s job for long enough.
Alongside this, the lights in the kitchen packed in (transformer- now replaced) and Outlook Express has decided I am no longer to be trusted with my own e-mails, asking me repeatedly for my password. Modern technology huh?
However, one e-mail that got through was a blessing.
I had an e-mail from a guy in Chile- Chris Esdaile, who has used one of our wilderness meditations , converted into Spanish, with a group in the Atacama desert!
There are some great photo’s on Flickr– showing a very different kind of wilderness.
Technology can bring blessing then- a connection with something whole worlds away…
Wilderness on my doorstep…
I am just back from a tramp around the hills above Dunoon. Exercise, I feel, is overdue.
What a lovely day- crispy frosty grass underfoot- bogs the more friendly for a creaking coat of ice. Views opening up over the distant hills and mountains.
For those who are used to walking in England- the hills of Cowal were mad busy today. I saw more people than I saw deer! (For the record- two people, one deer.)
The downside for this lack of use is that there are few if any paths, and so progress is hard and potentially fraught with wrong turnings. Today I found the summit of Bishops Seat, cold and whipped by thin clouds. But an attempt to find a trouble free and easy descent was foiled by fallen trees and areas of clear-felled forest. I emerged very muddy but satisfied, tramping through all the clean dog walkers on the path around the reservoir with pride at my obvious adventure.
I have come to love the kind of local walking that follows a known route, then extends it into the unknown- a new peak beckoning, or a clamber alongside a burn as it forces it’s way through the forest. I do not use a map for these outings- they are of little use in the forest anyway (planting and felling changes the landscape all too frequently.) A compass is useful to ensure that a firebreak is in the right direction, but beyond that- it’s about following the nose…
And today, it was wonderful.
I know myself blessed to be able to live amongst such beauty.
Today, it was good to be alive, and easy to worship God.
Christmas through the eyes of a small boy…
Christmas has passed…
We have had a lovely time- just the four of us for the most part- a rare and lovely thing.
Today we spent pottering in the house and garden- finishing some wallpapering in our bedroom, changing some taps and stacking logs. The kids had a lazy lazy day and did not even get out of their PJ’s.
We bought Will a camera. I downloaded some of his photos. It was an interesting insight into the mind and preoccupations of a small boy at Christmas time…
‘The Project’- a Scottish festival of arts, culture and faith
Here’s a plug for The Project
Who knows where its heading- but come along for the ride! Here’s the detail;
In August this year, Greenbelt Festival hosted a conversation for anyone interested in exploring the possibility of doing something like Greenbelt in Scotland. So a second meeting took place in Perth in November to take things a step further.
So ‘The PROJECT‘ was born… an interim process of small, viral, organic events during 2009 & 2010, building to the possibility of a larger event in 2011.
These small events would allow us to flesh out what a bigger event might look like; to more immediately model the kind of thing a larger event would contain; and to build a community of folk who’d be able to make a larger event happen.
It was clear at both meetings that any future event in Scotland should have its own identity, should grow out of Scottish culture and concerns, and not merely attempt to imitate Greenbelt. Although initially inspired by the spirit that Greenbelt (and other events) manifests, ‘The PROJECT‘ should develop a distinct Scottish nature, responding to the specific conditions, context and needs of this place and time.
WHAT IS ‘THE PROJECT‘?
A series of interim events leading to a larger festival event. As yet, there’s no specific shape or clear consensus about a larger event’s length, breadth, geography or season.
Whatever we end up with would be inspired initially by the spirit of Greenbelt, but should also learn from other Scottish & European models such as Street Level, Carberry Ferstival, Kirchentag or even the Edinburgh festival, The Mod, Celtic Connections.
The ‘interfaces of engagement’ would be: arts – faith – theology – ecology – politics – philosophy – spirituality – justice… basically celebration, inspiration, irreverence, laughter, tears, questions, argument, friendship, shivers up the spine – add your own noun to the list.
PROCESS & PEOPLE
The Perth meeting tasked Dot Reid, Graham Maule and John Cross to identify people who would be on an initial interim Steering Group.
There is some concern that ‘The PROJECT’ should not be owned by larger organisations, or become institutionalised. So that task brief was to identify people in terms of their interest and ability to take things to the next stage (and not in terms of being ‘representatives’ of organisations).
The interim Steering Group will organise 2 events in 2009 to bring people together and to help think through the possibilities of ‘The PROJECT’.
This group is not intended as a permanent group, but would commit to the interim 2009-2010 stage. If there is then judged to be enough energy and enthusiasm for the large event by that time, a new steering group appropriate to any more extensive undertaking would be formed.
INTERESTED?
if you want to join the community of like-minded people engaged in the task of realising ‘The PROJECT‘, you can join this Facebook group.
Or you can join a similar group on Bebo.
You can visit ‘The PROJECT‘’s interim website for details of the thinking behind ‘The PROJECT‘ and to find out about the events that will be taking place over the next couple of years.
And you can start to spread the word… tell your friends and colleagues about ‘The PROJECT‘ and get them to register their interest.
Dot Reid, John Cross Graham Maule.
The spiritual discipline of no longer coping…
If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your own pleasures, your own ways of coping, and follow the way of the cross.
Walk close with me…
If you insist on saving your life- you will just end up losing it.
You will just end up WASTING it.
Only those who are prepared to lose it all for my sake, and for the sake of my Kingdom, will ever know what it really means to LIVE…
From Mark 8:34-35.
Heres a question: Is it possible that the things we do to enable us to survive, or to socialise-even to succeed- easily become the seeds of our downfall? Perhaps the stuff that insulates us from one another, and from God?
I have thought about this a lot. It is one of those many areas where my understanding of God has been enhanced by my work with people who have mental health problems.
You see, perhaps the most influential therapeutic approach today is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). CBT encourages us to look at the way our thoughts, emotions, actions and physical sensations interact to form repetitive feedback loops that can be enslaving and extremely difficult to escape.
That is not to say that these loops are always dysfunctional. The truth is, much of how we engage with the world about us seems to be built on these things. We find ways, sometimes at a very early age, of managing the interface with the stresses and strains of life, and these tend to just continue into adulthood. For most of the time, this is just how it is- we do not need to examine this in any detail.
One of the things that CBT therapists will look for as we try to help people are ‘safety behaviours’. These are the things we do to enable us to get through. Of particular significance, and introducing the most complication, are those things we get into to cope with SOCIAL risks- that most subtle of human response to the risk of exposure, ridicule an embarrassment.
For some people, the safety behaviours may be highly damaging- drugs, alcohol, dependency on sex, or imprisonment in abusive relationships. For some, violence and anger become their defining emotion- enabling them always to be right.
For many of us, they may include more manageable, but still potentially unhelpful ways of keeping the world at bay- food, stuff that makes us feel good for a while, possessions, the pursuit of recognition and significance…
Then there are even more of us who appear to be doing OK. We have our things, our successes, and our projects. We know where we are going, more or less, and who we are going there with. We can cope with most of what life throws at us, because we are moving on our own tram lines- we have bought a ticket, and the only way is forward…
For those of us in the latter group, it is often only CRISIS that makes us take stock.
That makes us look at the safety behaviours we wrap ourselves in, and ask whether they are worth holding on to.
When I look at the passage above from Mark’s gospel, I wonder if Jesus knew all about this. I wonder if he understood that life lived for nothing is no life at all. That life insulated from people and from God is a lesser existence. That life where safety-comes-first will only ever be half life.
So I wondered about the need for us all to STOP coping.
To stop being in control.
To step outside the treadmill of the expected, the predictable, the manageable.
Into the great glorious unknown.
Where God is.
A little chat about guitar strings…
Here;s something for fellow guitar geeks…
I have used Elixir guitar strings for quite a while now. When I was playing more regularly, this was because I tended to get sweaty hands during live performances, and a set of normal, non-coated strings would be dull and lifeless in a very short time.
As I play live only every now and again at the moment, the longevity of the Elixir strings is also much appreciated- the current set on my main instrument have been there around 6 months, whereas at one point, I needed to change them every few weeks to retain some kind of bright edge to the sound I make.
As any guitar player will tell you, that new-string sound transforms even the best guitar. My Taylor 514CE is a lovely thing, but like all proper instruments, it needs to be looked after- and nothing pampers it quite like some nice new strings…
I think Elixir strings were the first coated ones to come on the market. The coating was invented by Gore enterprises- makers of Goretex, a breathable waterproof membrane used in outdoor clothing. Someone sprayed a tough microscopically thin coating on some strings, and hey presto, they hit on something worth marketing. I have tried other manufacturers coated strings since- but I have not found them to be as good on my guitar at least.
I find them a little duller at first, than uncoated strings (I used to use D’Addario phosphur-bronze strings,- but then the
sound simply does not deteriorate for ages and ages- even as the coating appears to wear and in some cases, shred.
One problem I had with the 80/20 bronze strings- both the polyweb and the nanoweb varieties, is that I often broke strings- particularly the G strings. I questioned Elixir about this- remember that the strings cost around twice as much as uncoated strings (expect to pay about £10-£12 a set). I was told that this was not a common problem- I’d be interested to know if anyone else has experienced this?
I remember when playing in the USA, I bought a whole set of extra G strings in an attempt to keep myself going. In the end I used uncoated G strings, although some of the other bound strings would pop from time to time…
Elixir have recently started making phosphor bronze coated strings, which are often even more expensive- but I think, worth the money- for two reasons- they sound even better, and I have not had the same problems with breaking strings.
Perhaps if you ask Santa nicely…
Breath of heaven
I haven’t seen the film but the combination of these lovely images and the beautiful song is wonderful.
Enjoy…
this fragile tent 