Category Archives: kindness

The Paradox of Winter

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There is something very special about seasons which change every three months. It is a gift of nature more marked for those of us who live further from the Equator, although, also there, different wind and weather patterns  play a season role.

Living in northern England, we can love the leaves changing in autumn, but have  faint dread of the colder winter coming, Of course, if it is a day of clear skies and minus two degrees Celsius or so ,the world is wonderful and the cold is crisp and very special. But change that to plus one degree Celsius with a wind and deep cloud cover and the land and the mood is not uplifted but depressed and weary. Winter.

As I write, in mid January, I hear the birdsong of a blackbird who has been day after day at the top of the old beech tree, singing and singing into the leaden sky. It was Christmas Day when I first noticed him and he brightened the complete time of daylight. Clinging to the top branch, swaying in the cold breeze. The bird has come and sung numerous times in the same tree since. He sings in the early morning, he sings in the mid afternoon and as dusk creeps into the light,he gives a final song before dark. We may be finding winter gloomy but the birds are out, singing, snatching seeds gratefully at their table and active .Winter.

The grass of the lawn is uneven with brown, dying patches, and moss patches are breaking out in brighter greens. And there around the edges, the promise of new life as daffodil shoots come through and stretch out for light and set themselves free from being brown bulbs. I marvel at this promise of life to come and promise of it coming soon . And hidden in the shelter of a small tree, the first snowdrop is still encased, but ready to break out and bloom. Winter. 

So the birds sing through this winter and the flowers know there is a new day coming and in the middle of the winter both can put out the promise of spring and regeneration.And creation wraps that blessing of daylight around them as the earth in the north has turned passed the winter solstice.

Winter, a hard and cold season ,has been given treasures from creation to relish and use for sustenance, for encouragement , for our nurture. The light has shined in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it .

The horror of a roof as an investment 

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Ask a ten year old ,nay a five year old ,what is a need in life , A hug ,aka Love? Food, a secure sleeping place ? Aka a home ..
Stop , think , what is your answer?

Then where is the justice in making a home a thing of investment and profit for self? Or of basic food being overpriced for profit , or the greed that fails to share love ?

Just asking

The fragility of courage, the imperative of courage

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‘ A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies and her husband has full confidence in her.’ A cry from the Proverbs of the Hebrew Old Testament for all times. And for today .

The death of Jo Cox is an immense tragedy for her husband and family. She was the mother of two small children and the gaping hole left in that family is all the more tragic when we dare to think of their future without her. We want them to be able to grieve with privacy, but so many of us want to hug them and just say, ” We are with you.” That is why the streets in in Batley were full yesterday. Humanity seeks to gather in tragedy. Seeks to comfort our neighbour;strangers and friends. 

So the question is not if we knew Jo Cox or had met her, but rather how can we huddle together and try to patch up the hole she has left? How do we huddle to make sense of her death … and of her killer? How do we deal with a member of our humanity who brutally lashes out and kills a wife of noble character more precious than rubies?

But wait, we are not remembering just now the doing, we are remembering who Jo Cox was. (We can’t even bear to hear the word ‘was’instead of ‘is.’)This is about being. A human being. .and our being human. We don’t do noble character, we don’t do being. We are. And this public grief is about ‘who are we ?’ We urgently need to model a noble character as individuals and for society.

The description of a wife of noble character is from the thirty first chapter of proverbs in the Old Testament wisdom books. Just before this description is the exhortation to ‘Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights for all those who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly ,defend the rights of the poor and needy ‘ 

Is this the response we have to Jo Cox’s death? As we grapple with immigration, integration, terrorism and fear? Speak up . Speak up for those who cannot help themselves. If we do this we follow not only the character of Jo Cox, but we can echo the teachings of Jesus to be an advocate for the poor and needy. With him as our bedrock and source of our strength . Jo Cox as a great pioneering example, we can seek to build a country of noble character; a better world of noble character.

 

 

 
 

Catching an evening

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Just waiting, just waiting.The sun is dropping quickly in the sky,  the dusk will come and suddenly the darkness.  This is the time  when the edge of the sun’s power is slightly chipped away.The rinsing of sticky hands and face can be a little less frequent. The light slants and shadows appear.
In the town, the pace of traffic slows and the pace of people powers up the commerce. It’s a time of special change in an evening hour. I love it, but today it’s just a little bit more precious.

The air is gently moving as it cools slowly by ten degrees or so. 34 degrees to 24. Maybe it will dip to 22 tonight with slight dew fall in the morning. But the air is restful as it slightly rustles the leaves.It’s cooling is gentle and relaxing and a longing to live longer in this hairdryer warm world stirs.Mindfulness of moments is acute tonight.

The dogs bark backwards and forwards and the cockrel mutters a quiet goodnight. The loudspeakers in town a mile away are background beat and the frogs croak in the ditch. Crickets fidget in unity and the silent lizard scales the wall.

Power is solar tonight and water is a little bit short.The cooking develops on the outdoor stove and the toddler gives exhaustion cries.

The food is delicious and everyone is sleepy. The call of the lead singer rouses the household to evening prayer and the melodies of praise gently envelop the house and all who dwell here.

I don’t want the intrusion of a mosquito net but spray it anyway and surrender to it’s protection. Did I remember my anti malarial today?

And now, passed midnight this world is quieter and the evening flight to Europe, I assume, has flown overhead as the lone reminder of air travel.

Time to sleep before the jolt of tomorrow.

//https://www.youcaring.com/tuition-fundraiser/new-dormitory-for-school-children-/322669″ title=”Fundraising for Uganda”>

Packing

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Got it all done … luggage squeezed and the zips all holding . Bike in the box and not forgotten to deflate tyres and remembered the pump .

Thank you to the very many of  you who have donated to Matugga. The generosity and kindness of strangers is something that holds human kind together. Kate Adie, a newsreporter found it in the harshest of places.

So take heart , much bad news there is , but there are far more human souls reaching out to do good to those they know and to those they will never meet .So be kind to those you meet and be generous and be blessed.  We can all do a little little bit to improve the world. Why question kindness?   Thank you to all of you

Beekeeping in the Snow

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Beekeeping in the Snow

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We all know, in northern Europe, that it has been a late snowy winter and that many humans are already fed up. Why won’t the Spring come ? We need it to be warmer.

We may think of the Selfish Giant described by Oscar Wilde and remember the snowy and icy garden of the giant who would not let children play there. When he relented, the spring came and the summer and the sound of happy children playing in his garden and giving him joy. The joy of seeing others happy was perhaps greater than seeing the beauty of nature. Quite something to think about for those of  us who may struggle with generosity.

But animals and bees are also struggling to welcome the first signs of spring. We see the lambs, not surrounded by daffodils but by snow drifts and cowering in fierce winds. And bees, whose queen tries to rapidly grow the colony at this time of year by laying and laying, are sitting in clusters trying to keep warm and fed. The bees of the colony have no way or where to forage for nectar and pollen. So its artificial feeding with sugar syrup , just to get them to a flowering Spring. Will it come in time ? Alas, for a few brave bees this week, they came out on a flight and returned only to  land on the snow, unable to take off again and dying  within a metre of the safety and warmth of the hive.

But the sun is warmer, now, eleven days into official spring. We feel its stronger rays and are encouraged to look skyward and see a little bit of blue sky and a very large promise of warmer and brighter times. Don’t give up a few metres from your hive of help,opportunity or hope.