Its beautiful here, but freezing!!!!!

It's high noon
As the far sun
Barely streaches over rooftops,
Causing long winter shadows.

Grey skies
Interupted with flash
And springs of colour
As trees,
In autumn splendor
Shake off last year
In hope of greater things.

In nakedness they stand
Tall and proud
Disregarding such mortal offspring
Which, like pages of time
Fall, one by one.
Their final act.
From treetop heights,
Withstanding gale and rain,
To gentle descent
Amoung comrades,

Where they become
Canvas to frosty
Morning dew,
Outlining their delicate frame.

Birds, their waters transfixed
By winters sudden arrival,
Skate over watery depths
As icey creaks
Join bird song.

Coming here
As leaves fall
And frost nips
Calls to remembrance
Times steady passing,
Whiich all our innovation
Cannot cease.

And so we pause,
Soaking up nature's wealth,
In the hope
That we too
Could be so effortlessly sublime.

holiness?

been reading a book called "The challenge of Jesus". I may have mentioned it before because I am loving reading it. In it the author, Tom Wright, discussing, amoung other things, the fact that Jesus was totally subversive (i think thats the right word for it) in everything He did. Always challenging the status quo. But in both obvious and really sublte ways that would only make sense if you were a first century Jew living under occupation.

As a bunch of friends who want more of God, we have been thinking about consecration and holiness. So there has been prayer and talking and challenge. All good. But what does holiness mean in this culture?

In Jesus' time the Pharisees thought they had holiness down to a T - all the outward signs said they had. So in todays day and age it would look like a bunch of people not drinking, smoking, doing drugs, sleeping around and defo staying away from non Christians - ie 'sinners'.

But Jesus came along and asked for a holiness which was not like that. He asked us to get in with the sinners and remember mercy and love - which clearly the P's had totally forgotten. But Jesus also challenged, not only the religous culture of the day, but also the regime of the day - the Romans.

What is the regime of today? What are we, the general people (not just the church, but that too) being opprressed by. What is it that is dominating the way we think, talk and live. What is it that is imposing its ideas about life, culture and civilisation on us. What gods are we being forced to worship and what ceasars do we have to bow to??

I am beginning to realise that there are all the really obvious ones - materialism, wealth and celebrity. These were also around at the time of Jesus - and are signs of an empire just about to decline (so say historians). But what about the more sublte ones - the ones which are bigger than us and our cities. The ones that are so big that they streach across countries and continents...

Because if i am to be consecrated to God, I want to be aware of them, challenge them and hopfully in the process, allow others to get free of them to.

I realised that when I first came to Manchester i was introduced to this whole idea through friends and things like Adbusters. But for some reason it just fell of my mental map. I can't work out if it was me being lazy or if it was a lack of space for it in life and relationships in general. But i want to carve out that space again, learn how to live this life out of a heart of love for God and people, not one of militancy (as seen in the anarchists) and destruction.

Holiness can't just be internal, it must have manifestations in my everyday life that reveals to people that I do not serve the same god or system. That I am free from it.

All this would be much easier if I lived in a cave. Or not.... 1)i would be on my billy tod, so making no impact, just more of a statement to people who once knew me. 2)i guess much of this stuff is just residing in my mind through mindsets and ideas. So i could be in a cave, but still servant to someting other than God.

all this was inspired, along with other things, by a quick trip to the Howies clothing web page (www.howies.co.uk). I want to discover holiness that liberates and revolutionises continents.

So should be pretty straight forward then...... haha

Notes

I was shopping in boots recently while trying to buy shower gel. Not complicated I know. So i picked up one bottle and, wanting to have a quick smell, i gave the bottle a v gentle squeeze, at which point a huge blob came out and splattered me on the nose, and then down my jacket...... i could feel the lady behind the cash desk giggling at me. So trying to recompose myself I realise i have no tissue and have to try to clean myself by other means.

so in the ensuing flurry, trying to maintain any last trace of respect, I choose a different type of shower gel and go to a different cash desk. So imagine my continued embarressment when using the newly purchased shower gel, i step out of the shower surprised by the pong of alpine-toilet duck aromas.......Not good.

Green "refresh" radox - false advertising if there ever was!!!!

Also a new helpful hint - storing tea bags of any desctription (esp Mint ones) above the kitchen sink is a receipe for a soggy disaster!

Other random things worthy of note from this week
- I have discovered quite a wide selection of hankies in my undies draw. Anyone who even thinks about a lifestyle of prayer should have one or be sponsered by Kleenex!! I have Santa and my Dad to thank.....
- why would anyone have 5 bra straps? Not even connnected to bras, just the straps. and 5 (a disconcerting number for such things). Well me - the secrets of my undies draw laid bare..... weird i say!

- also found an undeveloped film from goodness know when - so am looking forward to seeing the pics.
- was in Liverpools boiler room this weekend. Well I say boiler room. Its more rooms, or complex even. One could go so far as to say a hotel that just happened to enjoy praying people coming to stay. Us manchester people came a touch over prepared - many layers of clothing and sleeping bags. They have beds and heating!!!

Its a boiler - but not as we know it!! So we had much fun and tea, hopefully even the dead batteries got started.

As for manchester - could it be dreamers are dreaming again?

As for me - I'm still here.

congrats

realsied on bonfire night that i was not here in Manchester last year... took me a while to work out why. But i was in Greece chilling out at Resa and Krister's wedding. Congrats on your first year.

Also congrats to tony drago who as of tomorrow is 25!!!! oh my, happy birthday beautiful

yup, still in manchester. and i forgot just how much it rains here. it really does.

But since i last wrote i have realised i have been pushing out of old manchester boxes and looking for a new space. (a bit like the slightly overused catapiller - butterfly analogy). so its been hard, but feel like maybe something is shifting. The boxes you're in never feel small till you try to get out.

Also feel challenged to let go of the good i know of God in order to recieve the best. Exciting but am finding it hard, mainly down to lack of trust that He will give me the best rather than just leave me empty handed. But i am realising the way he fills our hands isn't ness what or how we would have guessed.
sneeky, but good.

oh and sorry for all the typos in the last entry. dyslexic typing.....

I am trying to leave, honest! It just seems that i often pick dates which clash with the almighty's calender. And I defo don't want to be doing that.

So after a week of getting a tad frustrated in the effort of pushing against His hands, I then realsied what on earth I was doing, decided against it and chilled out.

Now feeling much more peaceful. As anna h said - just wait for the green man!!

so sometime in the next wee while i shall be off - but am no longer rushing or pushing. Just sat here as the night sky is lit with pops and colours and things. off for fire and food soon......

happy days

for all the sun babies

this post is lovingly dedicated to all my friends who moan about the cold wet british winter when africa or a small tropical island is much more suitable!!!!

In the Observer mag this sat one of the columns was talking about "reverse SADo's" - ie people who LOVE the winter.

The writer in question (Barbara Ellen) is taling about the change of season from summer to autumn

"now, though, things are v different - the world is so beautiful it takes your breathe away. Leaves falling from the trees, puddles as permenant fixtures, fresh chilly mornings, face slapping breezes, lots of excuses to wear coats, boots and plum red scarfs........And, day or night you can walk around without worrying that the heat is going to melt the nose straight off your face! (at this point i wondered if she had a real nose!)

But i still agree - i love the heat, but there is something about winter. Lying in bed with ONE toe (big one on left foot) freezing cold, air so cold inside your nose hurts, getting up while its dark, being inside when its dark in big jumpers with hot tea, going out in said coat and scarf, only to find that the sun comes out, you roast alive and arrive at destination looking hot and bothered - not fresh and wind swept as hoped!!!

So not so much that last one.... but still i love it.

This time of year also brings about a Watson tradition - Bonfire treacle toffee!!! I got a huge bag full of it this morning. Thanks mum (there go my teeth!)

So to all my frineds all over the planet, just to say i hope you are loving the sun. I am loving the cold and not at all jealous (well, not much haha).