27.7.07

Lost Identity

I don't know how it happened. I just forgot I was a blogger. Totally forgot till today. So thats why I havene blogged for a wee while. Really weird. In blogging theres definatley a period where things of the day are divided into "bloggable" and "notbloggable" but then that passes and you become more harmoniously comfortable with your blogging status. And then it seems that after that you one day wake up and are not a blogger as such any more. You simply forget you own a blog and should feed it. (Like what usually happens with my plants but hopefully not my future womb fruit.) And here I have arrived at this third stage.
So.... maybe this signifies my blogging end. Or maybe not the end just yet but more a.... retirement. A graceful meander towards the nursing home.

19.7.07

life through the little things

I am reading Miroslav Volf's "Free of charge"(not just because of his name or the fact that he doesn't give God a gender although both of those things are very cool.)
This is a rad bit. He has just been talking about Gods life flowing through us through "sacred" things (singing/praying/stufflikethat)....
"Notice what happens to the flow of God's life if we think of it as limited to such sacred events. It is streaming into us, but for the most part it is not flowing through us on to others.... It is as we serve our neighbours- our family, friends and acquaintances- that the damn holding the flow of gifts is lifted and the life of God continues its intended flow. Every word and every deed, every thought and every gesture, even the simplest act of paying attention can be a gift and therefore an echo of Gods life in us.
You sit on your couch, beer or soda in hand and junk food by your side watching t.v for hours- that's ordinary. You work around the clock not because you have to feed your family, but for no other reason than to park a better car in your garage than your neighbours have- thats ordinary. You get up from the couch to play with your kids or give your time and energy to help educate a prisoner or lend an ear to an elderley person- thats extraordinary. Why? Because you are giving. Every gift breaks the barrier between the sacred and the mundane and floods the mundane with the sacred. When a gift is given life becomes extraordinary because Gods own gift of giving flows through the giver."
Awesome eh.

17.7.07

a challenge from Archbishop Desmond Tutu

"Freedom and liberty lose out by default because good people are not vigilant"
from Hope and Suffering: Sermons and Speeches. (1984)
it is sad that this is so true. That evil can continue because the caring and compassionate people are forgetful, distracted and lazy in the fight for justice.

agricultural update

only one tomato plant has died in the whole 2 weeks of owning them! what a wonderful success. 5 of the other plants all now have little bubbles of green nutrition ready to grow big and red any time soon.
I planted some lettuce seeds not realising that each seed became a whole lettuce so put a scattering of 20-40 seeds in each whole (you get millions in a packet) so now have a big trayful of HUNDREDS of lettuce sprouts which will all be ready to eat at the same time. Hmm. So again, let me know if you like salad ;)
We visited our family in Weymouth last week and had an awesome time looking at pirates graves and neolithic land bumps. My fabulous cousin sarah works in the quaintest bean and tea shop in the world (baskets piled high with lentils and strange stuff) and one day brought me home 4 aubergine plants and 3 pepper plants which made it back to London safe and sound. This veggie garden thing is well and truly gathering momentum. Hurray!

9.7.07

aviation hesitation

There has been some debate over here lately about the Live Earth Concerts - gigs to create awareness of climate change. You know, how does flying crowds of stars around the planet justify the awareness raised? etc etc. And fair enough too. I remember being rather disillusioned at the U2 concert standing before so many crates worth of equipment with Bono perched on top casting a vision of poverty eradication knowing full well the impact of his tour on climate change, and knowing full well that climate change hits the words poor the hardest and the first.
I thought it so sucked. And then I jumped on a plane across the world with several short hauls imbetween!
It is like, we are prepared to do the easy (sorting through our rubbish) and even the fasionable (the Anna Hindmarch bag, the bike with a basket (man, I want one))but not the things that are really hard.

Video from Plane Stupid a group and site worth checking out.

4.7.07

dreaming of freedom

Wonderful news! British journalist Alan Johnson set free after 114 days of captivity! "I am immensely grateful. It's just the most fantastic thing to be free."

Now, I don't mean to highjack the good news. A positive headline is such a rare thing. But, perhaps just because of the emotional intensity of the situation, his freedom is so starkly highlighting to me the millions in unjust captivity around the world. People who have such a faint, faint, hardly there faint glimmer of hope for freedom.

600,000 women slaves trafficked around the globe
1.2 million child slaves trafficked around the globe
12.3 million men, women and children currently in forced labour around the globe
23 million men, women and children in forced labour AND other forms of enslavement around the globe

Alan Johnson said this morning, "I literally dreamt many times of being free, and always woke up back in that room. And now it really is over, and it really is indescribably good."

God for those who dream of freedom around the world, make it a reality. And I pray WE will be prepared to work for the freedom of others. Some ideas are here but I am sure there is SO much more we can do to bring freedom for the those in captivity.

2.7.07

Greeenfingers

Last year I tried to grow two plants. It wasn't too great a success (see post I Kill Things)However I am giving it another crack and can proudly say I have owned 5 wonderful herbs for over 4 days now and they are all still alive.
I also ordered 5 tomato plants from ebay which when they turned up were a bit too tiny to expect anything on my plate any time soon (like 2 cm tall, I was gutted) so I asked Tim to pick me up a couple of bigger ones from the garden centre yesterday. He bought home another 6. So, er, now I have 11 tomato plants. (Give me a ring if you are making a salad in a month or so...)
And I just put some garlic in some soil to see what happens.
I have plans for an adventurous roof top garden with all sorts of edible delights and I have been dreaming about beds of potatos and stawberries and juicy carrots and designing greenhouses from recycled materials. I was greatly encouraged in my scheme when I wandered past a flash block of flats down the road the other day that had 5 ginourmous posh pots outside with nothing in that came to belong to my tomato plants (I asked a builder.)
So, I will let you know from time to time how the second furrow into botanics goes, and of course, do let me know a hot tip if you have one as I don't want to kill things this time.

6 wonderful little things in posh pot from down the road