The challenge of maintaining momentum

In many ways this epitomised my week... then I came across this -

"I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it."

Pablo Picasso

So I will start the new week with renewed hope and an image to cling on to.

Friday photo: Patterns of ebb and flow

The magic of an inconvenient moment

Sometimes we're so busy rushing around that we fail to notice what is going on around us.

On Tuesday night as I was driving home from work, I was stopped at a set of temporary traffic lights. My initial reaction was one of mild irritation - I wanted to get home not sit here in the middle of nowhere. Then I looked around me and saw the sun setting behind some trees. For once I had my camera handy, so took a couple of snaps. They weren't great, but they give a flavour of what was happening. I'm not sure what the other drivers were thinking as I poked the lens out of the window!

The rest of my journey was calmer, as I considered how lucky I was to have been stopped at that set of temporary traffic lights.

Abandoned book

I’m not sure if it’s a first for me, but it hasn’t happened for a long time. This week I abandoned a book half way through it. I used to feel compelled to finish every book that I started – however long it took. But a while back I read a blog entry by Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing. His time-saving tips includes this one:

Cultivate the habit of non-finishing. Not every project you start is worth finishing. Sometimes we get into it and realize, “This is a waste of time.” Fine, then give yourself permission to quit.

I do this all the time with reading. It’s why I am able to read so many articles and books. Here’s publishing’s dirty little secret: most books are not worth finishing. Most books could be cut in half and you wouldn’t miss a thing. The key is to read as long as you are interested and then stop. There are too many great books to read without getting bogged down in the merely good ones.

This obviously stuck in the space between my ears (I have actually adopted a few of his tips).

I was slogging my way through “Life conquers death” by John Arnold, and was not enjoying it – so I bit the bullet and followed Michael Hyatt’s tip. Life conquers death is now in the pile of books waiting to be filed away (although I’m not sure why I’m keeping it).

There were two good things directly from this book. Firstly it prompted me to dig out “The Oak and the Calf” by Solzhenitsyn, which is now in my ‘I must get around to (re)reading that’ pile. Secondly, Arnold quotes a Russian saying - “All drowns in Pharisaism”

This is worthy of further reflection.

Apart from a feeling of release, the biggest bonus from dumping this book, was the opening words of the one that I picked up in its place.

“I once listened to an Indian on television say that God was in the wind and the water, and I wondered how beautiful that was because it meant you could swim in Him or have Him brush your face in a breeze.”
(Blue like Jazz by Donald Miller)

This fits perfectly with the contemplative pathway of prayer that I’m exploring just now. I’m already loving this book.

Abandoning was a good choice.

These young people should be headline news

I've copied the title for this blog from Random Mum. I spent a large chunk of yesterday at the same event and was blown away by the talent, energy and commitment of the young people and their instrumental tutors etc.

There were several highlights:

As a proud dad watching Dolly D playing with two orchestras, and winning the string orchestra competition against the local rival school - for the gazillionth year in a row!

Hearing Perth Youth Orchestra playing to near professional standards - you should see them if you get the chance. I would have paid proper money to hear them. (Yesterday cost me £4.00 for over 4 hours of entertainment!)

Perth Academy Swing Band - playing the music that my dad loves, but more importantly and impressively the group is led and directed by one of the pupils. Amazing - he plays sax with the swing band and is the lead clarinetist with PYO!

A fantastic, uplifting day thanks to a huge number (literally hundreds) of young people, who we can rightly be proud of.

The contemplative path

This week Pathways of Prayer moves on to the contemplative path.

"The contemplative tradition in Christian spirituality describes the steady gaze of the soul upon God."

So that's the objective for this week. It'll be intriguing to see how this develops during what passes for 'normal life'. Will I be able to focus sufficiently during the working week?

I'm comforted (again) by the bit of Heschel that I was reading today:

"God is not hiding in a temple."

So maybe I will be able to contemplate while at work.

Doodle's moved on a bit more.

February Gold - in February!!

I've commented before that my favourite daffodil is called "February Gold", but it never flowers in February. Well this year it did - thanks to the leap year! When I got home from work yesterday, there was one flower in bloom. It's still a wee bit shy, but it's out. A cheery sight at the end of a tough old week at work.

Nice of it to burst forth in time for St David's Day!

"Life is a succession of moments, To live each one is to succeed."

- Corita Kent