Friday photo: Digital digitalis

Moderation

I think that I want to moderate some of what I said in my previous entry - it was maybe a wee bit self-centred.

I'm a morning person - always have been. So my encouragement to get up early and spend time reflecting was based on my own preferences and habits. It would have been more appropriate to have encouraged readers to find some time during each day to be still and think about the things that are of ultimate importance to you.

If you can do it at the same time each day - that's great. If you can't (maybe working irregular shifts), you'll know best how to fit it in.

A thought was triggered this morning (listening to a sermon on podcast) - for many people, summer is a pretty good time to try to find this kind of space. A lot of regular activities take a break, so there can be fewer commitments. In my particular example, it's easier to get up a bit earlier when it's daylight outside and relatively warm (I'm hoping that it's an established habit by the time winter comes!). It's also a time when there seems to be a positive feeling in the air, and maybe holidays provide an opportunity for reflection - as well as relaxation and fun.

Moderation

I think that I want to moderate some of what I said in my previous entry - it was maybe a wee bit self-centred.

I'm a morning person - always have been. So my encouragement to get up early and spend time reflecting was based on my own preferences and habits. It would have been more appropriate to have encouraged readers to find some time during each day to be still and think about the things that are of ultimate importance to you.

If you can do it at the same time each day - that's great. If you can't (maybe working irregular shifts), you'll know best how to fit it in.

A thought was triggered this morning (listening to a sermon on podcast) - for many people, summer is a pretty good time to try to find this kind of space. A lot of regular activities take a break, so there can be fewer commitments. In my particular example, it's easier to get up a bit earlier when it's daylight outside and relatively warm (I'm hoping that it's an established habit by the time winter comes!). It's also a time when there seems to be a positive feeling in the air, and maybe holidays provide an opportunity for reflection - as well as relaxation and fun.

Lord increase...

I said I would share a prayer that I've been using lately. It's one of David Adam's wonderful prayers in the Celtic tradition. I love the simplicity of the phrases, which also resonate with deep, lasting meaning.

Lord increase
My zest for living
My vision of glory
My hearing of your call
My grasp on reality
My response to your love
My sensitivity to others
My gentleness to creation
My taste for wonder
My love for you.

- from Power Lines

Who do you say...? #3

Last entry on this stuff.

The response to Jesus' question "involves a fundamental reorientation of the principle of life" (Wessel).

For me the question, begs another question - 'What does my life say about who Jesus is?'

'Follow me' sounds quite easy; 'take up your cross' is chilling!

At Spring Harvest in 1999, Phillip Hacking said "Sometimes we need to be shaken from our complacency - Jesus words were sometimes harsh, shocking."

Heschel talks about God as "not only a power to which we are accountable, but also a pattern for our lives." Follow me, indeed!

Being consistent in following our calling - whatever it may be - requires us to continually answer Jesus' question, "Who do you say I am?"

Well, the reflections of the past few days have shaken me from my complacency. I've found two prayers that have helped me to shape my thoughts and deal with the shaken-ness. I'll keep one for tomorrow night, but the one below came from a wee prayer card that I picked up in Dunkled Cathedral (and currently keep in my journal).

Lord let me walk with you and know your peace.

May my life speak of you,

and my whole being wait on you,

to hear your Word and do your will.

my Lord and my God.

Start the day the Bill Murray way

Does the fact that I've been neglecting my blog about developing daily disciplines tell you something? Well, I'm back.

The Bill Murray way refers to a friend of ours who died several years ago. Bill was a lovely man and a devoted Christian. He was very supportive to me through all of the years that I knew him. Yet we came from radically different perspectives on almost everything.

So how did Bill start his day? By getting up early and spending time praying and reading his Bible. (Bill could quote as much of the Bible as anyone I've ever known.) Bill's definition of early was 5:30 a.m.

Recently I've adopted this approach too - yes, up at 5:30 - and I feel fantastic after about 4 weeks. I feel that the day is getting off to the best possible start. Mornings seem calmer, and I still leave for work by 7:00.

I would encourage you to find a way to spend time early in the morning - reading, praying, studying. Take your mind away from yourself. I call it heightened focus - lifting my eyes from the ordinary to the extraordinary, so that I may serve the ordinary better.

Start the day the Bill Murray way

Does the fact that I've been neglecting my blog about developing daily disciplines tell you something? Well, I'm back.

The Bill Murray way refers to a friend of ours who died several years ago. Bill was a lovely man and a devoted Christian. He was very supportive to me through all of the years that I knew him. Yet we came from radically different perspectives on almost everything.

So how did Bill start his day? By getting up early and spending time praying and reading his Bible. (Bill could quote as much of the Bible as anyone I've ever known.) Bill's definition of early was 5:30 a.m.

Recently I've adopted this approach too - yes, up at 5:30 - and I feel fantastic after about 4 weeks. I feel that the day is getting off to the best possible start. Mornings seem calmer, and I still leave for work by 7:00.

I would encourage you to find a way to spend time early in the morning - reading, praying, studying. Take your mind away from yourself. I call it heightened focus - lifting my eyes from the ordinary to the extraordinary, so that I may serve the ordinary better.

Who do you say...? #2

The answer to Jesus' question, "Who do you say I am?" is in one sense relatively straightforward. As a Christian, I've made my decision to follow Jesus. So that's that then. Well... maybe not.

We are frequently blind to what is before us. At other times we see partially and don't probe deeper. Or we too readily accept common wisdom.

Jesus wisdom was uncommon. It required -and requires - a shift in thinking. It needs reflective learning and prayer to begin to fathom the depths.

The problem is that it's not just a one-off question. It's a daily question of commitment and priority. Having discovered Christ, we need to explore fully what it means and then apply it fully to our lives. It's a commitment to exploring a Christ-centred life.

The question is really - what is of ultimate importance to us?

God is of no importance

unless He is of supreme importance.

- Abraham Joshua Heschel

Who do you say ...?

Recently I've been reflecting on Jesus question to his disciples (see Mark 8:29)

But what about you? ... Who do you same I am?

It's clearly a defining question - then and now. It's been good to reflect on it and to not answer too quickly. The implications of the answer will be far-reaching, so I've allowed the question to linger. Over the next few days I'll maybe share some thoughts and some images.

Compost Corner

I spent several hours in the garden today (and I'm feeling a few aches and pains in my ageing body!). Most of the time was spent trying to sort out Compost Corner. This is an area that we've set aside to manage our compost. Since we garden organically, the generation of our own compost is quite important to us. It helps us to recycle a lot of material and it's satisfying to see the vegetable peelings, grass, paper etc breaking down and forming nutritious, beneficial compost.

However, there is a downside - it can be hard work. We've got 4 bins for compost - the idea being that the material moves along the bins until it's ready for use. Transferring the decomposing material is labour intensive - and frequently neglected. Unsurprisingly, it's also the most prolific area of the garden for weeds!

Anyway, after today's efforts (including valuable contributions from the Fish Wife)it's looking a lot better now.

The name Compost Corner was given to it by a friend who is a professional gardener. It was years later that I made the connection with the anarchic children's television show TISWAS. The clip below gives you an idea of the insanity of it all - but be warned if you like The Who, you may not want to watch it!

Friday photo: disturbing the peace

It's my first blogging anniversary...

... and 250th entry. The combination of milestones was achieved with my customary forward planning and attention to detail - i.e. none at all. I should have planned to write a literary gem describing the strange joy and complulsion of blogging. But I didn't.

So instead I'm just going to post this clever flyer that came through e-mail today. I hope the humour transcends parochialism.

As I can't get the image any bigger than this, I should explain that it's advertising "a three week guide to bluffing contemporary art" at the Baltic Centre in Gateshead.

I have set my rainbow in the clouds...

This beautiful rainbow appeared over Perth this evening. It was very vibrant and I loved the way that it seemed to embrace the city. - both the houses around where we live and the churches in the city centre.

It reminded me that whatever goes on below, God is always there, always loving - if only we would remember it!

Friday photo: on reflection

The sky last night

Taken at approximately 10:15

5 minutes

As I receive mail I allocate it in a variety of ways (more of that in another entry). Something that I've been trying to introduce recently is my "5 minutes" folder. The idea is that if I think something will take a short period of time (5 minutes is a loose measure of time) and it's not urgent (most things aren't), then I put it in my "5 minutes" folder.

Throughout the day as I finish a task, have time between meetings or need a break from something, I turn to the "5 minutes" folder and deal with something from start to finish. It's quite productive and satisfying. By turning to it a few times each day I find that there isn't an accumulation of stuff in it - and if it is getting too full, I know it's time to concentrate on thinning it out.

It works for paper and electronic material, and also for reading stuff. In theory it should work at home as well as work - but somehow I haven't managed to get sufficiently organised at home.

5 minutes

As I receive mail I allocate it in a variety of ways (more of that in another entry). Something that I've been trying to introduce recently is my "5 minutes" folder. The idea is that if I think something will take a short period of time (5 minutes is a loose measure of time) and it's not urgent (most things aren't), then I put it in my "5 minutes" folder.

Throughout the day as I finish a task, have time between meetings or need a break from something, I turn to the "5 minutes" folder and deal with something from start to finish. It's quite productive and satisfying. By turning to it a few times each day I find that there isn't an accumulation of stuff in it - and if it is getting too full, I know it's time to concentrate on thinning it out.

It works for paper and electronic material, and also for reading stuff. In theory it should work at home as well as work - but somehow I haven't managed to get sufficiently organised at home.

The perils of interpretation

I was in Brechin for a meeting today, and after it had finished I went for a wee walk around the cathedral there. It was a beautiful day and a lovely spot.

Amongst other things, one gravestone caught my eye and attention.

If you can't read it, the inscription says:

1812

Erected by Ann Rose

in memory of her husband

George McBain

late of the Swan Inn

Brechin

My initial assumption was that George was the landlord or owner of the Swan Inn. But then I started to wonder if maybe Ann was making a posthumous point about where George had spent much of his time while he was alive!

The moral of this tale? Even simple things can be more complicated than they seem - but a little bit of research would probably clear things up.

Friday photo: Blue sky ... thinking

Dreams and reality

I once was with somebody I liked very much -- an older person, when I was considerably younger than I am now. That person said, "Spend at least fifteen minutes a day weaving dreams. And if you weave a hundred, at least two of them will have a life." So continue with a dream and don't worry whether it can happen or not; weave it first. Many people have killed their dreams by figuring out whether they could do them or not before they dream them. So, if you're a first rate dreamer, dream it out - several of them - and then see what realities can come to make them happen, instead of saying, "Oh, my God. With this reality, what can I dream?

-Virginia Satir

I know that blogging aficionados don't approve of posts consisting of quotations - but I don't care! I came across this recently and thought it was great, so I'm sharing it with you.

I also think that there's an alternative way of ending it - 'with this dream, what reality can I create?'

Loose change

His Girl Friday commented on my Friday photo that she hadn't seen a coin with a portcullis on it before. At the time I didn't think much about it... then I realised that I have (apart from the thrupenny bit!). The answer was right in front of me - lying on my desk.

Aye the 'new' penny also features the portcullis. ('New' is of course a relative term - these coins were introduced in 1971!) I hadn't spotted the connection before. In a sense it's not surprising that some of our coins feature medieval architetural features. Not because we're stuck in a time warp or we're always looking backwards (although a case can probably be made for each of these!). No, the reason is that the portcullis is the symbol/ icon of the Houses of Parliament.

On reflection, I wonder if I'm oblivious to the coins that I use (not very frequently) because of the general affluence and associated carelessness of our lifestyles or if I simply haven't noted the detail because of all the other nonsense swirling around inside my head?

This random musing begs another question - what else is right in front of us that we don't notice?

Launching a new blog

After much vacillation, I’ve decided to launch a new, parallel blog. It’s called Thrupenny Thoughts and will contain various bits and pieces around the theme of developing daily discipline. I’ve been thinking about it for a while – partly as a means of committing piles of paper to electronic format and clearing up some of the accumulated mess in our house.

It’s also partly due to the coaching session that I was talking about yesterday – doing something that might make a difference to someone and also committing myself to a course of action that I’ve been toying with for some time.

I will still be posting the usual drivel and inanities here.

Caffeine control

One of the earliest daily disciplines that I consciously adopted was controlling my caffeine intake.

I used to suffer from hideous migraine, lasting up to 48 hours. Then I made some changes to my lifestyle and I haven’t had a migraine for over 3 years now.

Addressing my significant caffeine intake was one of the things that I changed. (By the way, I’m following the adventures of AnneDroid as she is attempting to tackle her caffeine consumption.)

Now I like coffee – my preferred way of taking caffeine – and I wasn’t really prepared to give it up completely. So my solution for too much caffeine was to drink coffee only before lunchtime (a somewhat vague measure of time), and to be quite strict about the volume. On a work day that means a cup of coffee with breakfast and some coffee (a somewhat vague measure of volume) in the middle of the morning.

I freely admit to being a coffee snob. I only drink instant coffee when held at gunpoint. So the important part of this discipline for me – is to only drink good coffee. This does mean planning ahead sometimes and taking filter coffee from home in my thermal cup, but it does mean that I haven’t resented the reduction in quantity as the habit has become firmly embedded in my daily disciplines.

Caffeine control

One of the earliest daily disciplines that I consciously adopted was controlling my caffeine intake.

I used to suffer from hideous migraine, lasting up to 48 hours. Then I made some changes to my lifestyle and I haven’t had a migraine for over 3 years now.

Addressing my significant caffeine intake was one of the things that I changed. (By the way, I’m following the adventures of AnneDroid as she is attempting to tackle her caffeine consumption.)

Now I like coffee – my preferred way of taking caffeine – and I wasn’t really prepared to give it up completely. So my solution for too much caffeine was to drink coffee only before lunchtime (a somewhat vague measure of time), and to be quite strict about the volume. On a work day that means a cup of coffee with breakfast and some coffee (a somewhat vague measure of volume) in the middle of the morning.

I freely admit to being a coffee snob. I only drink instant coffee when held at gunpoint. So the important part of this discipline for me – is to only drink good coffee. This does mean planning ahead sometimes and taking filter coffee from home in my thermal cup, but it does mean that I haven’t resented the reduction in quantity as the habit has become firmly embedded in my daily disciplines.

Thrupenny thoughts??

Where did the name for this blog come from?

Well, originally it was going to be called “DDD” (as in Developing Daily Discipline), but I thought that might attract the wrong kind of attention – and therefore disappoint readers!

My next thought was 3d, which seemed a lot safer but still carried the potential to confuse.

Then I realised that 3d was how we used to depict threepence (thrupence) in writing. (Yes, I remember using pre-decimilisation British coinage.) This coin would have a relative low value nowadays (slightly more than one penny). It’s also multi-sided – a quaint feature of some British coins, which I like. It’s actually a duodecagon (that’s 12 sided).

So Thrupenny Thoughts seemed to be an appropriate name and metaphor for a blog that will cover different aspects of developing daily discipline (multi-sided), with the thoughts being of limited value in their own right!

Well, it makes sense to me!

Thrupenny thoughts??

Where did the name for this blog come from?

Well, originally it was going to be called “DDD” (as in Developing Daily Discipline), but I thought that might attract the wrong kind of attention – and therefore disappoint readers!

My next thought was 3d, which seemed a lot safer but still carried the potential to confuse.

Then I realised that 3d was how we used to depict threepence (thrupence) in writing. (Yes, I remember using pre-decimilisation British coinage.) This coin would have a relative low value nowadays (slightly more than one penny). It’s also multi-sided – a quaint feature of some British coins, which I like. It’s actually a duodecagon (that’s 12 sided).

So Thrupenny Thoughts seemed to be an appropriate name and metaphor for a blog that will cover different aspects of developing daily discipline (multi-sided), with the thoughts being of limited value in their own right!

Well, it makes sense to me!

Developing Daily Discipline

Over the past decade or so I’ve been collecting articles, snippets, tips and ideas that I have come to associate with ‘developing daily discipline’. The first time that I can find myself using that term specifically was in December 2005, when I was maintaining a reflective journal for a course that I was on at the time. I wrote:

“I’ve written frequently in this journal about: ‘I need to …’. While it’s good to identify areas for improvement, ideas need to be put into practice. For me – I think – this is most likely to happen if changes are introduced as daily disciplines.”

Since then I’ve been a bit more conscious of gathering material on a variety of topics that can loosely be associated with this theme. So I’ve decided to start posting some of them in this blog.

Very few of them will be in any way original; many will be simple; many will be idiosyncratic or even self-centred. Over the years some of these disciplines have changed; some have been completely jettisoned; others exist as ideas that have yet to be tested by me.

Feel free to add comments, include your own ideas or variations on the theme.

I’ll probably post a couple of thoughts each week, but there are no promises!

Developing Daily Discipline

Over the past decade or so I’ve been collecting articles, snippets, tips and ideas that I have come to associate with ‘developing daily discipline’. The first time that I can find myself using that term specifically was in December 2005, when I was maintaining a reflective journal for a course that I was on at the time. I wrote:

“I’ve written frequently in this journal about: ‘I need to …’. While it’s good to identify areas for improvement, ideas need to be put into practice. For me – I think – this is most likely to happen if changes are introduced as daily disciplines.”

Since then I’ve been a bit more conscious of gathering material on a variety of topics that can loosely be associated with this theme. So I’ve decided to start posting some of them in this blog.

Very few of them will be in any way original; many will be simple; many will be idiosyncratic or even self-centred. Over the years some of these disciplines have changed; some have been completely jettisoned; others exist as ideas that have yet to be tested by me.

Feel free to add comments, include your own ideas or variations on the theme.

I’ll probably post a couple of thoughts each week, but there are no promises!